Sir Hugh Allan of Ravenscrag, to whom Canada is chiefly indebted for the magnificent Allan Line of steamships, was born at Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland, September 29th, 1810. He came to Canada in 1826 and entered into business as already stated. His whole life was one of incessant activity. He was founder of the Merchants’ Bank of Canada and its president, and the President of the Montreal Telegraph Co., and many other important commercial institutions. Sir Hugh was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen, in person, in July, 1871, in recognition of his valuable services to the commerce of Canada and the Empire. He died in Edinburgh, suddenly, December 9th, 1882, and was buried in Mount Royal cemetery, Montreal. Sir Hugh was a man, very emphatically, _sui generis_. Quick to arrive at his conclusions, he was slow to abandon them; where he planted his foot there he meant it to stay. A keen and enterprising man of business, he accumulated a princely fortune. To those who knew him only on the street or in the Board-room he might, perhaps, seem curt and brusque. His conscious power of influencing others made him almost necessarily dogmatic and dictatorial, but in private life he was one of the most amiable, kind-hearted and genial of men. He was a staunch Presbyterian, a liberal supporter of the Auld Kirk of Scotland in Canada, and in his younger days devoted much time in promoting its interests. [Illustration: _Sir Hugh Allan_.] The brothers Bryce and James died several years before Sir Hugh. Alexander died in Glasgow in 1892. Mr. Andrew Allan, now the senior partner of the Montreal firm, was the youngest of the five brothers, and is the only survivor of them. Mr. Allan was born at Saltcoats, December 1st, 1822, and came out to Canada in 1839. He married a daughter of the late John Smith, of Montreal (a sister of Lady Hugh Allan). Mrs. Allan died in 1881, leaving a large family. Two of the sons, Messrs. Hugh H. and Andrew H., are associated with their father and with Messrs. Hugh Montagu and Bryce J. Allan, sons of the late Sir Hugh, in managing the extensive business of the Canadian branch of the Allan Line. Mr. Allan has filled many of the posts of honour and responsibility formerly occupied by Sir Hugh, and earned for himself the golden opinions of his fellow citizens.