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ROBERTSON MACAULAY1889
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T(homas) B(assett) Macaulay was born in Hamilton, Ontario on 6 June 1860. His father, Robertson (1833-1915), was the son of a fisherman in Fraserburgh, Scotland. With limited prospects in Scotland (his father had more sons than boats), Robertson boarded a larger boat and emigrated to Canada in 1854. He married Barbara Marie Reid, and moved his family to Montreal when offered a position at a small Montreal-based firm called Sun Life Assurance Company.3
T. B. MACAULAY T(homas) B(assett) Macaulay, President of Sun Life (1915 to 1934).1915
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T. B. graduated from the High School of Montreal. He joined the Sun Life Assurance Company at 17, was appointed actuary at 20, Managing Director at 46, and President at 55. His father had preceded him as Managing Director and President between 1889 and 1915. T. B. served as President for 20 years, before retiring but remaining as Chairman of the Board.5
SUN LIFE BUILDING 19181918
Sun Life Building, Montreal, Quebec
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During the 'reign' of the Macaulays, the Sun Life Assurance Company grew from a small local firm, with modest offices on St. James Street, to a huge global corporation, head-quartered in what was the largest building in the British Commonwealth. The Macaulays contributed to a shift in the perception of the life insurance business. It moved from a dubious undertaking (people tended initially to be skeptical about "betting on human life" and apprehensive that companies would refuse to pay because of some condition buried in the small print of the contract) to a respected business, which made life less a game of chance and more a game of skill.7
T. B. MACAULAY WITH SON AND GRANDCHILDREN1930
Mount Victoria Farm, Hudson, Quebec
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In 1881, T. B. married Henrietta M. L. Bragg from New Orleans (niece of U. S. Army General Bragg). Their son, Frederick L. (born in 1883) was soon followed by three daughters - Jessie (Mrs. P. D. Woods), Esther (Mrs. H. W. K. Hale), and Gertrude (Mrs. C. A. Sutton) - and then Douglas L., a second son. There were no other children born out of two later marriages to Margaret Allan of London, England in 1912, and to Margaret Palin of Gloucester, England in 1920.9
HUDSON HEIGHTS TRAIN STATION1940
Hudson, Quebec
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The family grew up in Montreal. In 1899, T. B. bought Mount Victoria, a 300-acre farm, as a week-end and Summer residence. It was a short drive from Hudson Heights railway station, only 50 kilometers west of Montreal, with regular train service from Windsor Station of Canadian Pacific Railways.11
FIRST MACAULAY HOME AT MOUNT VICTORIA1905
Mount Victoria Farm, Hudson, Quebec
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SECOND MACAULAY HOME: FRONT1940
Mount Victoria Farm, Hudson, Quebec
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Their first home on the property, made of logs, was built in 1900, and their second home, this time made of stone, was built in 1929-1930. Still standing on the edge of a 150-foot cliff (with a view to the North across the Lake of Two Mountains all the way to Mirabelle Airport in the Laurentians), it is now the home of Baron E. Von Hoyningen Huene.14
T. B. was a student of the principles of genetics. He had already applied those principles in working out actuarial tables based on life expectancy at Sun Life. At his farm, he began applying those principles to other animals and plants. He explored the scientific breeding of plants (maize, soybeans) so that they could be adapted to the short growing season in Canada. He considered the breeding of horses (Clydesdales, Shetland ponies), cattle (French-Canadian, Short-horns), hogs, geese, and even elk in those early days at the farm. |
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