In recognition of his distinguished career as a statesman and philanthropist.
(Born in Forres. Rose from clerk (1838) to Governor (1889) of the Hudson's Bay Company.)
"I do not think it would be possible to overrate the benefits that have been conferred upon the Empire by Scotsmen. Many young Scotsmen have gone out in days gone by to India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, the West Indies and elsewhere, and their sterling characteristics, their capacity for hard work, and their determination to succeed, have had much to do with the development of the different parts of the Empire.
They have taken an important part in developing Canada, in the East, as well as in the West. We have a Nova Scotia, and British Columbia was formerly known as Caledonia. What is now known as Western Canada was at one time under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company. The men who have been connected with the administration of that Company for the last two centuries have been mostly drawn from Scotland. They cut themselves away from the world for long periods ; they looked after the interests of the country, and became friendly with the aborigines. But for their watchfulness and their determination to look after British interests, it is quite certain that Western Canada today would not be a part of the Empire. And it is equally certain that the transfer of the Hudson's Bay territory to Canada could not have been carried out so readily and with so little friction, but for the civilising influence which the Company had exercised for so many years."