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 ...

Life and career

He was born in Colborne,

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North Americ ...

, 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 Cit ...

(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 Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

. 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 The Midland Railway of Canada was a historical Canadian railway which ran from Port Hope, Ontario to Midland on Georgian Bay. The line was originally intended to run to Peterborough, but the competing Cobourg and Peterborough Railway was comple ...

, later leasing it to the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rail ...

. In 1884, he founded the Central Canada Loan and Savings Company, moving to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

in 1888 and becoming president of the

Canadian Bank of Commerce The Canadian Bank of Commerce was a Canadian bank which was founded in 1867, and had hundreds of branches throughout Canada. It merged in 1961 with the Imperial Bank of Canada to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. History In 1866 a ...

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 sa ...

and the Toronto Evening Star. In 1896, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada by Sir

Wilfrid Laurier Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime mini ...

. In 1898, Cox and

Edward Rogers Wood Edward Rogers Wood (May 11, 1866 – June 16, 1941) was a prominent financier in Canadian business. He was notable for his role in the development of the Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company Limited (later Brascan Limited, then amalgamated ...

incorporated the

National Trust Company The Bank of Nova Scotia (french: link=no, Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse), operating as Scotiabank (french: link=no, Banque Scotia), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. One of Canada ...

in Toronto, which became the Scotia Trust in 1997 and part of the

Bank of Nova Scotia The Bank of Nova Scotia (french: link=no, Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse), operating as Scotiabank (french: link=no, Banque Scotia), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. One of Canada ...

. 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 Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. Man ...

, the Crow's Nest Pass Coal Company, and utilities developments in Brazil which became consolidated under Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company. 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 Sir William Thomas White, GCMG, PC (UK), PC (Can) (November 13, 1866 – February 11, 1955), was a Canadian politician and Cabinet minister. Biography White worked as a reporter for the ''Toronto Evening Telegram'' in 1890, and subsequen ...

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 ...

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 Frank Porter Wood (29 June 1882 – 20 March 1955) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He is best remembered for his many gifts and bequests of artworks to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Life and career Wood was born in P ...

, the younger brother of

. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the

Victorian Order of Nurses The Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) has been leading home and community care in Canada for over a century. Today, VON provides home and community support services to over 10,000 people every day across Ontario and Nova Scotia. It is registered as a ...

, a founding member of the

Canadian Red Cross The Canadian Red Cross Society ()Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

. He died in Toronto in 1914 and was buried in

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a cemetery located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries. It was opened in November 1876 and is located north of Moore Park, a neighbourhood of Toronto. The cemetery has k ...

References

External links

* * * {{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