Bates, Thomas Nathaniel, is one of the leading business men of Ottawa, and holds the position of Vice-President and Manager of the International Land & Lumber Company, of 285 Bank Street, in that city. He is also Vice-President of the British Canadian Industrial Company, Limited. He was born at L’Orignal, Ontario, in 1881, and is a son of Joseph Lever Bates. He was educated at the public and high schools of Hawkesbury, Ont., and as a lad of nineteen went into the insurance business as an agent for the New York Life Insurance Company at Ottawa. He proved one of the most successful writers of policies that this country has produced, and in 1904 made the Canadian record for his company by obtaining one hundred and seven applications for insurance in the space of thirty-five days. He was appointed Superintendent of Agencies for the company, and continued in that position until 1907. In that year the International Land and Lumber Company and the British Canadian Industrial Company were organized, and he was connected with them from their inception. Under his energetic and enterprising direction, they have developed a large and substantial business. In politics Mr. Bates is a Conservative, and in religion a Methodist. He is a member of the Laurentian Club; the Britannia Boat Club and the Canadian Club, Ottawa. On September 21, 1909, he married Maud, daughter of Thomas Askwith, Ottawa, and has two sons. Mr. and Mrs. Bates reside at 248 O’Connor Street in the capital.
Rose, George Maclean, President and Manager of the Hunter-Rose Company, Limited, Toronto, comes of a family which has been identified with the printing and publishing industry in Canada since the pre-Confederation era. He was born at the city of Quebec on October 30, 1865, the son of the late George Maclean Rose and his wife, Margaret Levack Manson, both natives of Caithness, Scotland. Sir Oliver Mowat, the famous Liberal statesman, who was for nearly a quarter of a century Prime Minister of Ontario, and held other very important public offices, was a cousin of the late Mrs. Rose. The subject of this sketch was educated at the Model School and the Wellesley School, Toronto, and later took a course at the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, with a view to embarking in a career of scientific agriculture, a project subsequently abandoned. He began his business career with the Williams, Greene & Rome Company, Ltd., manufacturers of men’s wear at Kitchener (then Berlin), Ont., and became secretary and a director of the company. Severing connection with the enterprise, he went to New York, and was engaged in business there for ten years, returning to Canada in 1902 to join the Hunter-Rose Company, established many years previously by his father. He acted as secretary of the company for two years, and in 1904 became President and Manager, the position he holds to-day. The Hunter-Rose Company is one of the historic commercial concerns of Canada. Its founder, the late George Maclean Rose, was a native of Wick, Caithness, who, as a young man in Scotland acquired complete familiarity with every phase of the printing and publishing business. In the middle fifties he came to Canada, and settled in Montreal, but in 1857 went to London, Ont., and in company with the late Hamilton Hunter established the printing firm of Hunter & Rose. This partnership was, however, short-lived, and in 1859, Mr. Rose joined forces with the late Samuel Thompson, of Toronto, who had received the contract to execute the printing for the parliament of Canada. This necessitated removal to Quebec, at that time capital of Canada. It shortly became necessary for Mr. Thompson to retire from business, and to carry on the work of government printing Mr. Rose formed the firm of Hunter-Rose & Company, in the ancient capital, taking into partnership Robert Hunter, a practical accountant. The completion of the parliament buildings at Ottawa in 1865 and the establishment of the government there, necessitated removal to that city, which remained the headquarters of the firm for several years. Confederation, in the meantime, having become an established fact, Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald, the first Premier of Ontario, induced Mr. Rose to establish a branch in Toronto, to take charge of the provincial printing. In 1871, Mr. Rose came to Toronto to reside permanently, and since that time the name Hunter-Rose & Company has been identified with the commercial life of Toronto. In 1877, Mr. Robert Hunter died, and Mr. Rose became sole proprietor. The firm was incorporated under its present name in 1895. Government printing ceased to be the staple of its business many years ago, and book publishing became a very important part of its activities. From its plant have been issued many reprints of the leading authors of the past and present century. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the first volume of “Representative Canadians,” edited by the late George Maclean Rose, was published in 1886. The present head of the company, who has carried on the historic traditions of the firm, is a member of the Canadian Manufacturers Association and of the Toronto Board of Trade. As a young man, he took a deep interest in military matters, and was a Lieutenant in the 48th Highlanders of Toronto, when that regiment was first established. He was also a lacrosse enthusiast, and played with the old Ontarios of Toronto and the Crescents of Brooklyn, N.Y. His present recreation is golf, and he is a member of the Ontario Club, the Simcoe Club, the Lakeview Golf Club, and the Ontario Jockey Club. In religion he is a Unitarian, and in politics independent.
CHARLES M. BOWMAN
Southampton
Blair, Lieutenant James K. (Ottawa, Ont.), who was killed in action at the Somme October 2, 1916, was born September 11, 1890, at Truro, Nova Scotia, the only son of Lieutenant-Colonel H. C. Blair, Inspector of Customs, Ottawa, and Grace Ewart Blair. He received his education in the common schools of Truro, and was a commercial traveller when he enlisted at Saskatoon as a private on the outbreak of the war. He was married early in 1916 to Dulcie, daughter of Captain Brooks of the Indian Army, and Mrs. Brooks, and is survived by one son, James K. Blair, whom he never saw. After enlisting, he trained with the 28th Battalion in Winnipeg, and on receiving a commission in February, 1915, joined the 46th Battalion at Moose Jaw, and left for England with a draft from the battalion in July, 1915. He qualified at Hythe as a musketry instructor, and was attached in that capacity to the 32nd Reserve Battalion, where he served for one year. He went to France on August 2, 1916, where he joined the 2nd Canadian Entrenching Battalion, and then went to his old battalion the 28th. The following extract from a letter written by the Commanding officer of the 28th is a tribute to Lieutenant Blair’s military abilities:—“Poor Jimmie Blair never had a chance to do more than show he had the grit to stick the worst the Boche could do. He joined us when we were on our way south, and fitted easily into the very happy family our mess then was. He did what he had to do well, and gave entire satisfaction. As our Battalion was then in a high state of efficiency, that is a good recommendation to any officer. In the big attack of September 15, we only took in half our officers, and Lieutenant Blair was left out, so he did not get the chance which two of the officers of his company got, and which resulted in the award to them of the M.C. We went in again on September 24-25, and Blair’s platoon was in the centre, and was subjected to very severe shelling during all of which he carried himself coolly and bravely, and came through in good shape. After a couple of days back we went in again on another sector to hold. Blair’s company was in Kenora trench, just where it joins Regina trench, of which so much has been said in the papers. This was really a communication trench, but had to be held on account of the command it gave us for future operations. It was, however, badly enfiladed, and we had practically all our casualties there. The battalion we relieved had just captured it, and it was subjected to a good deal of shell fire, and it was during one of these poor Blair was killed by a small shell which landed in the bay in which he was posted. I gave orders that his body be brought out for burial, but a heavy rain and resulting mud, together with the exhausted condition of our men, made this impossible. He was, therefore, given a soldier’s grave near where he fell, and on ground which should be considered sacred to Canadians, as many of our officers and men had fallen, and have fallen since, before Regina trench was finally captured. He died, therefore, as so many have, just ”holding the line,“ nothing spectacular; just a matter of duty well and bravely done under very trying circumstances. He gave promise of doing well, but he was not given the opportunity which the real attack gives. His people, however, will have the satisfaction of knowing that he did his duty well, bore himself bravely in the face of fire, and died like a soldier.” Another officer friend. Captain Quinan, writes:—“I well remember Jim when he left England for France, as full of spirits as old Allan Richardson before him, who, too, has been killed. Jim was full of life, and only asked for a chance to help to avenge his chum. He will, I assure you, always remain in my memory as ‘Jim,’ a very fine and gallant gentleman.” He was a Presbyterian and a Liberal Conservative. Lieutenant Blair was very proud of the Canadians, and in a letter to his parents, said;—“The Canadians have no black marks against them, and do not intend to have.” He had a high reputation both as an instructor and as a soldier. One of Lieutenant Blair’s ancestors, Captain William Blair, fought at the siege of Louisburg in 1745, and his father joined the militia.