James Ross

James Leveson Ross (1848 – 20 September 1913), of Montreal, was a Scottish-born Canadian civil engineer, businessman and philanthropist. He established his fortune predominantly through railway construction, notably for the Canadian Pacific Railway, of which he was the major shareholder, and advising Lord Strathcona on railway projects in Argentina and Chile. He oversaw the electrification of street railways in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saint John, Birmingham (England), Mexico City and São Paulo. He was president of the Dominion Bridge Company, the Mexican Power Company etc. He was Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the 17th Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars and Governor of McGill University and the Royal Victoria Hospital. He was an avid collector of the Old Masters and president of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He owned several yachts including two named Glencairn and became the first Canadian to be made a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. He funded the construction of the Ross Memorial Wing at the Royal Vic; the Ross Memorial Hospital and Nurse's Home at Lindsay, Ontario; and the Protestant Hospital for the Insane at Verdun, Quebec. He lived in the Golden Square Mile. Early life Ross was born in 1848 at Cromarty, Scotland. He was the eldest son of Captain John R. Ross (d. 1889), a merchant and shipowner, and his wife Mary B. McKeddie (1826–1896), daughter of Captain McKeddie of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Ross was educated at Inverness Royal Academy and afterwards trained as a civil engineer in England. He worked for a while in a railway, harbour and water works before coming to the United States in 1868 to apply his talents to the rapidly expanding North American railway industry. In 1870, he was appointed engineer, then chief engineer, of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad. Career Railway engineer After marrying in 1872 (see notes below on his family), Ross became chief engineer of the Wisconsin Central Railway and then the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. On Lake Ontario, Ross came into contact with George Laidlaw and several other well-connected railway promoters, who persuaded him to come to Canada. He was appointed chief engineer of Laidlaw's Victoria Railway, and in 1879, he built the Credit Valley Railway. Ross was then appointed as acting consulting engineer for the Ontario and Quebec Railway, during which time he came into contact with three ambitious young men, namely William Mackenzie, Donald Mann and Herbert S. Holt.