Various

A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography


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Commission. It was while he held the latter office that he took service as one of the organizers of the Valcartier Military Camp, earning high praise from the Governor-General and the Militia Department, and finally receiving his knighthood at the hands of King George. As Colonel in Command he raised the 171st Battalion, which he took over to England in 1916, continuing his services with the army as one of the officers of a Railway Construction Battalion in France, after the 171st had been absorbed in other battalions, in terms of what is known as the Territorial System. No citizen of Quebec has earned higher credit for patriotic effort than Sir William. Setting aside his many business duties and resigning a lucrative government position, he ably fulfilled the duties assigned to him as a soldier. The responsible positions he has held as a business man and a public-spirited citizen have been manifold. Besides being President of the Price Brothers & Company, he has been Director and Honorary Chairman of the Union Bank; a Director of the Quebec Railway, Light, Heat and Power Company; Vice-President of the Canadian Lumberman’s Association; as well as being President of the Metis Lumber Company, the Jonquiere Pulp and Paper Company, the Gravel Lumber Company, and President of the Canadian Export Co. Nor did his business engagements hinder him from taking an active part in civic and charitable enterprises to which he has given beneficently of his means. At one time he was a Governor of the Jeffrey Hale Hospital, President of the Board of Trade, Director of the Trans-Canadian Railway project, an energetic supporter of the movement in favor of the National Battlefields Park, and President of the Quebec Turf Club. As far back as 1887, he took a practical interest in local military affairs, having been a lieutenant in the Eighth Royal Rifles, and being raised to his captaincy before his withdrawal from that company in 1903. As a prelude to his activity as a military organizer at the Valcartier Camp, he raised two companies for service during the Boer War, and encouraged rifle practice by presenting the Price Cup for competition at the targets. As a parliamentarian he had a term of three years; but his earlier defeat in the Rimouski constituency was repeated by Quebec West in 1911. As has been well said of him, he has proved himself to be a citizen of whom any community might well be proud. He was married in 1894, to Miss Amelia Blanche Smith, daughter of Mr. R. H. Smith, another of Quebec’s most prominent and worthy lumber merchants. His family consists of four sons and two daughters. Sir William has since his early days been an enthusiast as a “portageur,” and a keen sportsman. He owns two salmon-breeding rivers and extensive hunting grounds. While soldiering abroad, he continued head of his firm, which has in its employment several thousands of employees.

      E.J. Beaumont, KITCHENER

       M.G. Bristow, OTTAWA