GEORGE HADRILL.
George Hadrill, secretary of the Montreal Board of Trade, is one whose opinions concerning business conditions are largely accepted as standard, because of his broad experience and his thorough study of matters effecting trade relations of the country. For more than a quarter of a century he has occupied his present position and has been called into conference in many trade councils. He was born in London, England, August 2, 1848, a son of George and Elizabeth (Bushell) Hadrill. His education was acquired in the metropolis, and he spent the earlier years of his business life in that city, arriving in Canada in 1874, when a young man of twenty-six years. Three years were devoted to business pursuits before he joined the staff of the Montreal Board of Trade in 1877. His fitness for the position is evidenced in the fact that by 1880 he had been promoted to the position of assistant secretary. Six years passed and in 1886 he was made secretary, so that he has now acted in that capacity for twenty-eight years. The occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his acceptance of the position was fittingly celebrated, and a cabinet of silverware was presented him by the Montreal Board of Trade.
His position as secretary brings him into close contact with business affairs and trade organizations throughout the world. He has been a delegate to several imperial trade congresses, the last being held in Sydney, Australia. By invitation he was a delegate to Newfoundland to assist in the formation of a board of trade there in 1909. He was presented in 1903 with a testimonial from British delegates to the imperial trade congress at Montreal in acknowledgement of courtesies and services rendered by him. In 1905 he was elected an honorary member of the International Board of Foreign Trade and was made honorary secretary of the King Edward memorial committee of Montreal in 1911. His position has brought him into close connection with many important civic and municipal projects with which the Board of Trade has been intimately associated.
In 1891 Mr. Hadrill married Emmeline Lilian, the daughter of J. Albert Copland of Chelmsford, England. Mrs. Hadrill died in December, 1902. Mr. Hadrill has been a director of St. George’s Society of Montreal and is an Anglican in religious faith. The Montreal Herald has written of him that he is “a man of great natural abilities as a statistician and accountant.” “He possesses unusual qualifications for his office, which calls for a display of diplomacy, tact and social qualities as well as for purely business ability,” writes another paper, and this opinion is corroborated by all who have come in contact with him. While thoroughly systematic and methodical in managing the duties of his position, he has at the same time that ready resourcefulness which enables him to meet an emergency and secure from it the best possible results.
CHARLES MELVILLE HAYS.
The tales of heroic conduct in times of war will always arouse the enthusiasm and call forth the praise of those who hear them, but heroism is by no means confined to the men who wear their nation’s uniform and march to the sound of the bugle. It has been manifest where there were none to witness and none to record the story and with nothing but an individual sense of duty for its inspiration. The world thrilled with the story of the heroism of the men, who, in the silence of the night, gave women and children over to the care of the few who manned the lifeboats and quietly awaited death on the decks of the steamship Titanic when it sank on its maiden trip across the Atlantic, April 15, 1912. Included in the great toll of human lives exacted by this catastrophe, was that of Charles Melville Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways and one of the foremost railroad magnates of his generation. His was the master mind in the development of the Grand Trunk Pacific and his work for the Grand Trunk Railway has become a part of the history of the Dominion. One of the elements of his success was that he was always essentially and strictly a railroad man, never dissipating his energies over too broad a field but concentrating his efforts along that single line of activity.
A native of Rock Island, Illinois, Mr. Hays was born in 1856, and was but a child when his parents removed to St. Louis, Missouri, in which city he was reared and received his educational training. He was but a boy of seventeen when he started out in life on his own account as a clerk in the passenger department of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway. From that time on his advancement was continuous and rapid, solely the result of his thoroughness, efficiency and genuine merit. After a year he was transferred to the auditor’s department and later was called to a position in the office of the general superintendent, where his aptitude, enterprise and initiative were soon recognized. From 1878 until 1884 he was secretary to the general manager of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and in the latter year was offered and accepted the position of secretary to the general manager of the Wabash & St. Louis Pacific Railway Company.
CHARLES M. HAYS