Donald Smith, 1St Baron Strathcona And Mount Royal

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, GCMG, GCVO, PC, DL was a Scottish-born Canadian fur trader, financier, railroad baron and politician. Smith was born in Forres, in Moray, Scotland to Alexander Smith, a saddler, and Barbera Stuart. On leaving school at the age of 16 he briefly apprenticed to become a lawyer in the town clerk's office.He emigrated to Lower Canada in 1838 to work for the Hudson's Bay Company, becoming a clerk for the organization in 1842. He was given administrative control over the seigneury of Mingan in late 1843, where his innovative methods met with the disapproval of HBC governor Sir George Simpson