Walter Kavanagh was one of the best known representatives of insurance interests in Canada. For a quarter of a century he had been chief agent for the Scottish Union & National Insurance Company, for which he did a large business. He also held the chief agency of the German-American company and recently had been appointed to the same position with the Rochester German Insurance Company.
Mr. Kavanagh was of Irish extraction, of which he gave evidence in his brightness, warmth of heart, geniality and lively wit, which will long be remembered by those who were his social associates. As an insurance agent he was full of energy, aggressive, and thoroughly in earnest in promoting the interests of the companies he represented. It is but natural that such success as attended the efforts of Mr. Kavanagh should have created heart burnings in those who had not the ability to reach his plane in the insurance world, and that his position should have been at times jealously envied it is superfluous to mention, for there were many who tried to emulate his success and many who sought to rival his popularity. Mr. Kavanagh died November 22, 1905.
FRANCIS WOLFERSTAN THOMAS.
The world has little use for a misanthrope. The worth of the individual is largely judged by what he has accomplished in behalf of his fellowmen and, as a modern philosopher has put it: “Not the good that comes to us but the good that comes to the world through us is the measure of our success.” Judged by this standard Francis Wolferstan Thomas was a most successful man. Along strictly business lines, too, his advancement was continuous until he stood among the prominent representatives of banking interests in the country, the growth and development of The Molson’s Bank of Montreal being attributable in large measure to his efforts and sound business judgment. He was born at Moorwinstow, Cornwall, England, January 9, 1834, and was educated at King Edward VI School in Sherburne, Dorsetshire. It was the family wish that he should enter the priesthood of the Anglican church; and later he was intended for the army, but before a commission was procured he came to Canada, arriving here in October, 1851. He came of ancestry honorable and distinguished. His paternal grandfather was the Rev. Thomas Thomas, a fellow of Oxford and vicar of Tidenham in Gloucestershire. He married Elizabeth Wolferstan, of Hartland, Devon, and their family included Rev. Francis Wolferstan Thomas, who became rector of Parkham, North Devon. He married a lady of the ancient and important family of Shearrue, whose seat is at Woodlands, Cornwall. They were the parents of Francis Wolferstan Thomas.
The latter came to Canada with the intention of following agricultural pursuits, but gave up that plan and turned his attention to engineering, securing temporary employment with the Grand Trunk Railway Company. Soon afterward, however, he sought other employment and his native talents and training gained him recognition in appointment to a position in the Bank of Upper Canada. A year later James Stevenson, the cashier of the Quebec Bank, who was then managing the Bank of Montreal, offered Mr. Thomas a position, which he accepted. He was afterward rapidly promoted in recognition of his ability and the rapidity with which he mastered the various phases of the banking business, until in 1865 he was appointed manager of the London branch of the bank in western Canada. In 1870 the position of cashier in Molson’s Bank was offered him and after carefully considering the subject of making a change he at length accepted, and the continuous growth and development of the bank from that time until his death testified to his ability, resourcefulness and initiative. He occupied a commanding position in banking circles, his opinions being largely accepted as authority upon all vital questions of the financial world of Canada. He was also a director of the Canadian Life Assurance Company. His high standing among the financiers of the country is indicated in the fact that in 1896 he was honored with the presidency of the Dominion Bankers Association, and he was also a member of the council of the Montreal Board of Trade and chairman of the bankers’ branch of the Board of Trade. He was likewise a director of the Montreal Cemetery Company.
F. WOLFERSTAN THOMAS
In 1861 Mr. Thomas was married to Harriet Amelia Goodhue, a native of London, Ontario, and third daughter of the late Hon. George Jarvis Goodhue, M. L. C., and a representative of one of the distinguished families of Salem, Massachusetts. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, of whom four are living. Mrs. Thomas ably seconded her husband in his many philanthropic and beneficent efforts. She has served as manager of the Ladies’ Benevolent Society for thirty-four years and was its treasurer for nineteen years; she was first directress of the Mackay Institute for Protestant Deaf Mutes and the Blind; first directress of the Church Home; and president of the Montreal School of Cookery, founded by the Princess Louise. Both Mr. and Mrs. Thomas held membership in the Church of England. Probably no other man in the city led such an active and useful life in respect to charities and public movements having to do with the upbuilding and welfare of Montreal. For years he was a prominent member of the Good Government Association. He was also a director of the Art Association and was a member of the council of the Board of Arts and Manufactures. No good work done in the name of charity or religion ever sought his aid in vain. He was a member of the committee of managers of the Montreal General Hospital and of the St. John’s Ambulance Association, and thus he reached out in helpful spirit toward the unfortunate. He was treasurer of the Church Home, treasurer of the Protestant Hospital for the Insane, treasurer of the Andrews Home, treasurer of the Murray Bay Convalescent Home, president of the Mackay Institute for Protestant Deaf Mutes and the Blind, and vice president of the Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1894 he was elected president of the Montreal General Hospital and the following year was chosen president of the St. George Society. He was for many years an exemplary representative of the Masonic fraternity and was district deputy grandmaster of the London district. One of his most successful accomplishments was the erection of the Montreal General Hospital Jubilee Training Home for Nurses in 1897. While eminently successful in business, he regarded his banking interests as but one phase of life, and it never was allowed to overshadow his duties to his fellowmen. It would be more just to say that it was a deep interest in mankind rather than a sense of duty that prompted his active support of and cooperation in the many movements with which he became allied—movements which seek to ameliorate the hard conditions of life for the unfortunate, to advance the interests of science, to promote civilization and uplift mankind.
Mr. Thomas passed away on May 18, 1900, and the Montreal Star in an editorial said: “In mourning the death of Mr. F. Wolferstan Thomas, Montreal sorrows for the loss of one of her most prominent and useful citizens. A successful banker Mr. Thomas was, as the growth of Molson’s Bank under his guidance shows; but he was more than that. He was a citizen in the fullest sense of that much abused word. At every point he bore the duties that attach to citizenship duties, that far too many busy men neglect. Then he was a philanthropist, as his long and valuable services in connection with the General Hospital, the Mackay Institute and the other establishments founded for the succor of the sick and suffering abundantly demonstrate. The mere list of the associations for the good of his fellowmen with which he was actively connected, make up a long paragraph. As his sympathies enrolled him among the forces which ease the grind of life for the unfortunate, so his stanch integrity and keen judgment classed him with those who made for honest government and just laws.