THOMAS BASSETT MACAULAY.
Thomas Bassett Macaulay, actuary and well known in insurance circles, not only in Montreal but throughout Canada and the United States, has aside from his business affairs led a life of intense and well directed activity, being identified with various organized movements which have to do with the promotion of moral progress or which seek to alleviate hard conditions of life for the unfortunate.
Mr. Macaulay is a native of the province of Ontario, having been born in Hamilton on the 6th of June, 1860, a son of Robertson and Barbara Maria (Reid) Macaulay. After pursuing his early education in Hamilton he continued his studies in Montreal and made his initial step in the business world in the service of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada at Montreal in October, 1877. He bent every energy to the mastery of the duties intrusted to him and the recognition of his ability and faithfulness came to him in promotion. In 1880 he was appointed actuary and in 1891 was made secretary of the company. In 1898 he was elected a director and in 1906 became managing director of a corporation that is acknowledged to be one of the strongest and most reliable insurance companies of the world. By examination he became a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Great Britain and is now supervisor at Montreal in connection with examinations of the institute. He is a charter member of the Actuarial Society of America and was honored with election to its presidency in 1899 and in 1901, while he is now a life member of its council. He has indeed a wide reputation in his profession and extended acquaintance. He is a member of the Royal Statistical Society of England, a corresponding member of the Institute des Actuaires Françaises de France and in 1895 was again a delegate to the International Commerce of Actuaries in Brussels, and again in 1898 in London and in 1900 in Paris. At the last mentioned he was elected vice president to represent both the United States and Canada. He was also elected vice president of the International Actuaries Association in 1906.
Important and responsible are the duties which have come to Mr. Macaulay with his developing powers, and he finds rest and recreation therefrom in his interests in farming and stock-raising. He has valuable farming property at Hudson Heights, Quebec. He also has other business connections, being a director of the Illinois Traction Company, of the National Trust Company and of the Dominion Glass Company. He is likewise actively interested in organizations having to do with the public welfare, being a governor of the Montreal General Hospital. He is likewise a governor of the Congregational College of Canada which is indicative of his church relationship. In 1911 he was elected president of the Congregational Union of Canada. The same year he was elected president of the Canadian and West Indian League. He is a careful student of all the vital problems and questions of the age and fearlessly he pronounces his opinions yet is never aggressive. He favors the imposition of a moderate import duty by the United Kingdom and colonies to be kept distinct from local duties and to be applied to imperial defence.
In 1881, Mr. Macaulay was married to Miss Henrietta M. L. Bragg, who died in 1910. She was the daughter of the late Oliver Bragg, M. D., and a step-daughter of the Rev. J. Lawson Forster, D. D., of London, England. In 1912 he married Miss Margaret Allen, a daughter of the late Rev. William Allen of London, England. Many have expressed the opinion that he should take a more active part in public life for his qualifications are such as would make him a powerful factor in the discussion of important questions. He is an agreeable speaker, clear, fluent and forceful, and he has the ability of instructing while entertaining. It would be difficult to mention the line along which his usefulness has been greatest for he has accomplished much in various connections, and his work has ever been an influencing factor on the side of reform, progress, improvement and right.
THE BAGG FAMILY.
The Bagg family is one of the oldest English families on the island of Montreal and one whose members have been foremost in social, financial, religious, political and military circles for the past century, or since the arrival of the first representative of the name, Stanley Bagg, Esq., who was born in County Durham, England, where this branch of the family possessed large landed estates. In Canada for the past three-quarters of a century such men as Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Clark Bagg, scholar, financier and philanthropist, and his son, the late Robert Stanley Bagg, a worthy son of an honored sire, have placed the name on a high plane.
Stanley Bagg, Esq., the first of this family to settle in Montreal, was born in England in 1786 and died at Fairmount, the family residence on Sherbrooke Street, October 31, 1853, aged sixty-seven years. He left to his son, Stanley Clark Bagg, large landed estates in Montreal and County Durham, England. Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Clark Bagg, son of Stanley and Mary Ann (Clark) Bagg, was born at the manor house in Montreal on December 23, 1820. He studied law and afterwards took up the notarial profession, which he practiced successfully for a number of years but abandoned it in order to give his attention to the management of estates which he inherited from his grandfather, as well as a freehold property in County Durham, England. He was at one time the largest landholder on the island of Montreal, gave many streets and squares to the city and made very substantial benefactions to the citizens. He was an honorary member of the Montreal Field Battery and Artillery and of the Light Infantry, and his name figured in connection with public office through appointment to the position of one of Her Majesty’s justices of the peace in 1859, after which he performed judicial duties for a time. In 1865 he was solicited to become mayor of Montreal but declined the proffered honor. In politics he was a conservative but without political ambition, refusing nomination for a seat in parliament. He was, however, a deep student of the questions of the times, wrote largely for the press and his writings were received warmly in both England and America. He was greatly interested in philanthropic projects and in efforts to promote intellectual progress. He became one of the founders and the first president of the English Workingmen’s Benefit Society, was one of the founders of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society, which honored him with its presidency, and a life member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He also belonged to the Cathedral Young Men’s Christian Association, the Natural History Society and the Mechanics Institute. His activities had their root in principles inculcated by the Church of England and he was a devoted member of Christ Church Cathedral. He married Miss Catharine Mitcheson, a daughter of Robert and Frances (MacGregor) Mitcheson, natives of England and Scotland respectively, and died at his residence, “Fairmount,” in Montreal, August 8, 1873.
