H. Montagu Allan

Encyclopedia : H : HM : HMO : H. Montagu Allan

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 III (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 III, 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.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.