George Albertus Cox (May 7, 1840 – January 16, 1914) was a very prominent Canadian businessman and a member of the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the B ...

Life and career

He was born in Colborne, Upper Canada, in 1840. He began work as a telegrapher for the

Montreal Telegraph Company The Montreal Telegraph Company was the first significant telegraph company in Canada. In 1847, early telegraph pioneer Orrin S. Wood was recruited to be president of the company, which rapidly established telegraph lines to Toronto and Quebec City ...

(acquired by the Great North Western Telegraph Company in 1881 and finally merged into Canadian National Telegraph in 1915) and became their agent in Peterborough, Ontario. In 1861, he became an agent for the Canada Life Assurance Company. He served seven years as mayor of Peterborough and accumulated real estate in that area. In 1878, he became president of the Midland Railway of Canada, later leasing it to the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1884, he founded the Central Canada Loan and Savings Company, moving to Toronto in 1888 and becoming president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1890. During the 1890s, he was involved in the purchase of the

Toronto Globe ''The Globe'' was a newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1844 by George Brown as a Reform voice. It merged with ''The Mail and Empire'' in 1936 to form ''The Globe and Mail''. History ''The Globe'' is pre-dated by a title of the same ...

and the Toronto Evening Star. In 1896, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada by Sir Wilfrid Laurier. In 1898, Cox and Edward Rogers Wood incorporated the National Trust Company in Toronto, which became the Scotia Trust in 1997 and part of the Bank of Nova Scotia. In 1900, he became president and general manager of Canada Life Assurance. In 1901, Cox and Edward R. Wood established investment dealer Dominion Securities Corporation Limited, today a part of the

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000& ...

. By this time, he controlled many of the important Canadian companies in the insurance and finance sectors. His companies helped finance the Canadian Northern Railway, the Crow's Nest Pass Coal Company, and utilities developments in Brazil which became consolidated under

Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company Brazilian commonly refers to: * Something of, from or relating to Brazil * Brazilian Portuguese, the dialect of the Portuguese language used mostly in Brazil * Brazilians, the people (citizens) of Brazil, or of Brazilian descent Brazilian may also ...

. Cox was one of the few Canadian millionaires of his era. A number of notable Canadians got their start in Cox companies: William Thomas White,

James Henry Gundy James Henry Gundy (March 22, 1880 - November 10, 1951) was a Canadian businessman who co-founded Wood Gundy and Company, stockbrokerage in Toronto, Ontario in 1905. He was born in Harriston, Ontario and at age eighteen moved to Toronto, where h ...

Edward Robert Peacock Sir Edward Robert Peacock, GCVO (1871–1962) was a Canadian-born merchant banker. He is perhaps best known as a director of the Bank of England, or for his role as receiver general to the Duchy of Cornwall, which provides a source of independent ...

, and Frank Porter Wood, the younger brother of Edward Rogers Wood. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Victorian Order of Nurses, a founding member of the Canadian Red Cross and an active member of the

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

. He died in Toronto in 1914 and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, George 1840 births 1914 deaths Canadian bank presidents Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Canadian Methodists Canadian senators from Ontario Candidates in the 1887 Canadian federal election Liberal Party of Canada senators Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Liberal Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons