Sir William Christopher Macdonald

Sir William Christopher Macdonald, manufacturer, philanthropist (b at Glenaladale, PEI 1831; d at Montréal 9 June 1917), son of Donald Macdonald, president of the Legislative Council of PEI. Educated at Central Academy, Charlottetown, Macdonald began his career as a Montréal commission merchant. Within a few years he became a tobacco manufacturer, founding the Macdonald Tobacco Co and amassing a large fortune. A man with neither family nor frivolous tastes, Macdonald became the greatest educational philanthropist of his generation.

He was a generous benefactor of McGill and Ontario Agricultural College (now part of U of Guelph) and founded and endowed Macdonald College at Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Qué, and Macdonald Hall at Guelph, Ont. With James ROBERTSON, he financed a number of elementary-school innovations: the Macdonald Manual Training Movement, the Macdonald Rural Schools Fund and the Macdonald Consolidated School Project. Knighted in 1898, he was for many years chancellor of McGill.

Author ROBERT M. STAMP

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