(Redirected from Montagu H. Allan)
H. Montagu Allan
'Sir H. Montagu Allan' (
October 13,
1860 –
September 26,
1951) was a
Canadian banker, ship owner, and a sportsman who donated the
Allan Cup, the trophy symbolic of men's amateur
ice hockey supremacy in Canada.
Born 'Hugh Andrew Montagu Allan' into a
Scottish-Quebec family, he was the second son of
Sir Hugh Allan. Known by his first name, he eventually changed to using Montagu in order to avoid confusion with his cousin Hugh Andrew Allan (1857-1938). He studied at
Bishop's College School in
Lennoxville, Quebec then in
Paris, France before joining his father's shipping business, the
Allan Line, where he would eventually become chairman.
On
October 18,
1893, Montagu Allan married Marguerite Ethel MacKenzie (1873-1957) with whom he would have four children:
# Marguerite Martha (1895-1942), founded the "''Montreal Repertory Theatre''"
#
Hugh Allan (1897-1917)
# Anna Marjory (1898-1915)
# Gwendolyn Evelyn (1900-1915)
In May of 1915, during
World War I, his wife, along with daughters Anna, 16, and Gwen, 15, were aboard the
RMS Lusitania when it was sunk by the
German submarine,
Unterseeboot 20. After she and her daughters jumped into the water, Mrs. Allan was severely injured. While she was rescued, both daughters drowned. Anna's body was never found but Gwendolyn's was recovered the next day and returned to Montreal for burial in the family plot in the
Mount Royal Cemetery. Two years after this tragedy, the War claimed a third child when son
Hugh Allan, a Flight Sub-Lieutenant with the
Royal Naval Air Service, was killed in action.
Montagu Allan served on the Board of Directors of several major companies including
Canada Steamship Lines Inc.,
Royal Trust Company,
Ogilvie Flour Mills Co., and
Montreal, Light, Heat & Power Company. As well, he was a director and the President of the
Merchants Bank of Canada, who oversaw its amalgamation into the
Bank of Montreal in 1922.
An avid sportsman, Allan was a member of several sporting clubs and the owner of a
thoroughbred horse-racing stable whose horses won several
Queen's Plates, Canada's most prestigious horse race. For his contribution to the sport of ice hockey, in 1945 he was made a member of the
Hockey Hall of Fame in the
Builders category.
Allan was created a
knight bachelor by King
Edward VII of the United Kingdom in 1906 and the following year was decorated Commander of the
Royal Victorian Order.
Montagu Allan and his wife are interred in the
Mount Royal Cemetery next to two of their daughters.
External Links
★
Sir Montagu Allan at Legends of Hockey