A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography: Brief biographies of persons distinguished in the professional, military and political life, and the commerce and industry of Canada, in the twentieth century — John Shaqi
A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography: Brief biographies of persons distinguished in the professional, military and political life, and the commerce and industry of Canada, in the twentieth century
History
A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography: Brief biographies of persons distinguished in the professional, military and political life, and the commerce and industry of Canada, in the twentieth century
Canada -- Biography
=Price, Sir William=, the prominent capitalist of Quebec City, who has
been engaged in military operations during the European War as Colonel
of the 171st Battalion, at Valcartier, and later as an officer at the
front, is a son of Mr. Henry Ferrier Price, who married Miss Florence
Rogerson. He was born at Talca, Chili, on August 30, 1867. His uncle was
the Hon. Senator E. J. Price, on whose death he became leading partner
of the firm of Price Brothers & Company, in 1886. He was educated at
Bishops College School, Lennoxville, P.Q., and later at St. Mark’s
School, Windsor, England. He has been prominent in the public life as
well as the business circles of Quebec, having been a member of
parliament for one of the electoral divisions of the place and
afterwards Chairman of the Harbor 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.
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