Major David Seath occupies an important position in the public service of the Dominion as secretary and treasurer of the harbor commission of Montreal. He is a son of the late Robert Seath, a wholesale clothing merchant of Montreal, and Margaret (Stephen) Seath. Born in Montreal on May 9, 1847, he subsequently attended the high school in this city and the parish school at Ste. Rose, province of Quebec. In 1864 he entered the employ of his father and subsequently became connected with the firm of Tyre, Perkins & Lajoie, accountants and assignees, of which he subsequently became a member under the firm style of Lajoie, Seath & Perrault, which was formed in 1877. The firm also was for a time known under the style of Thibaudeau & Seath, and of this firm our subject was a partner until 1895. From that year until 1898 he was president and manager of the Perrault Printing Company. At that time he was also a member of the board of license commissioners of Montreal. In 1898 he was appointed secretary and treasurer of the harbor commissioners board of Montreal, which office he has ever since held. His public record is one to be highly commended.
Mr. Seath is a justice of the peace and has to his credit a long military career in the volunteer service, his years of active duty comprising those between 1864 and 1905. He joined the Victoria Rifles as a private in 1864 and took part in the Fenian raid in 1866 and 1870, receiving in the latter year the medal and two clasps. During that time, in 1867, he was gazetted lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, Hochelaga Light Infantry. He attained the rank of captain in the Sixth Fusiliers and in 1905 rejoined this regiment, known as the “Prince of Wales’,” as paymaster with the honorary rank of major, retiring in the same year. Besides his Fenian raids medals and clasps, he holds the colonial auxiliary forces officers’ long service decoration. He was instrumental in having the services of the volunteers for the Fenian raids recognized by the government. Besides acting as justice of the peace he is also commissioner for receiving affidavits from outside the province of Ontario to be used in Ontario and is commissioner of the superior court of the province of Quebec.
Major Seath was married in September, 1904, to Miss Emma A. Fish, of Westmount, on which occasion he was presented with a valuable service of plate by the Montreal harbor commissioners. In religious faith he is an Anglican and his political convictions incline him towards the liberal party. Mr. Seath stands high in Freemasonry, having attained the thirty-second degree. He has been grand registrar of the grand lodge of Quebec and grand scribe, grand treasurer and grand first principal of the grand chapter of Quebec. He is a Knight Templar and an officer of the A. & A. Scotish Rite. The family residence is at 95 Mackay Street, Montreal. Hon. Robert Mackay, the distinguished statesman and man of affairs, says of him: “An officer of long and faithful service who was and is always at his post”; and this statement expresses his faithfulness to duty perhaps better than anything that could be said in addition.
ALBERT E. DE LORIMIER, K. C.
Albert E. de Lorimier is a successful and distinguished lawyer of Montreal. He belongs to an old French family, one member of which, Count de Chamilly, was marshal of France, and another, Count d’Estoges de Lorimier, was executed with Louis XVI for his loyalty and devotedness to his king.
His direct ancestor in Canada, Guillaume de Lorimier, sieur des Bordes en Gatinais, came to Montreal in the seventeenth century with Governor Marquis de Denonville. His great-grandfather, Claude Guillaume de Lorimier, knight of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis of France, distinguished himself at Fort George and at the siege of Corlar. His grandfather, Major Guillaume de Lorimier, author of “My Services During the War of the American Invasion,” served with his brother Chamilly under General Sir Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester, on Lake Champlain in 1775. One of his uncles, Captain William de Lorimier of the Fencibles, was killed at Chrysler’s Farm in 1813.
A. E. de Lorimier was born at Sault St. Louis, in the province of Quebec, and is the son of Georges Antoine de Lorimier and Mrs. Marie L. McComber. He acquired his early education at the Huntingdon Academy, Huntingdon, completed his classics at St. Mary’s College, Montreal, and was admitted to the practice of law in July, 1885, after having graduated LL. B. from Laval University. He speaks the French and English languages fluently and equally well.
In October, 1886, he married Miss Mina de Lorimier, daughter of Mr. Justice Charles Chamilly de Lorimier of Montreal, and both are well known in social circles of this city.
Mr. de Lorimier first formed partnership with the Hon. F. X. Trudel, late Senator; N. Charbonneau, now Mr. Justice Charbonneau, and Gustave Lamothe, K. C., and later with Charles Chamilly de Lorimier, now Mr. Justice de Lorimier, and finally with D. Girouard, late justice of the supreme court of Canada. In 1896 he took the Hon. Sir Auguste R. Angers in his firm known as Angers, de Lorimier & Godin. He was created king’s counsel in 1903 and was on several occasions elected member of the council of the bar. He declined the honor to represent his native county in the Dominion parliament and to stand as an alderman in the Centre ward of Montreal, preferring to devote all his time and knowledge to his clientage. He was in his earlier days twice president of L’Union Catholique of Montreal and is a life governor of Notre Dame Hospital and of L’Ecole Sociale Populaire. He enjoys the reputation of being one of the prominent and most respected barristers in Montreal. The future, undoubtedly, holds for him still greater distinction and honor in his chosen field.