Arthur James Nesbitt (19 August 1880 – 24 October 1954) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

businessman and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

. He was a cofounder of

Nesbitt, Thomson and Company Nesbitt, Thomson and Company was a Canadian stock brokerage firm that was founded in 1912 by Arthur J. Nesbitt and Peter A. T. Thomson. The firm was headquartered on St. James Street in Montreal, Quebec.Nesbitt, A. R. Deane. ''Dry Goods & Pic ...

stockbroker A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and ...

age and the

Power Corporation of Canada Power Corporation of Canada is a management and holding company that focuses on financial services in North America, Europe and Asia. Its core holdings are insurance, retirement, wealth management and investment management, including a portfolio ...

Biography

Salesman and Royal Securities

Born in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John () is a port#seaport, seaport city located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. It is Canada's oldest Municipal corporation, incorporated city, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign ...

, Arthur Nesbitt first worked as a

dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and Common ...

salesman, peddling products to area merchants. During the course of his travels he met Peter A. T. Thomson, a pickle salesman for the Canadian arm of the

H. J. Heinz Company The Kraft Heinz Foods Company, formerly the H. J. Heinz Company and commonly known as Heinz (), is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 186 ...

. The two struck up a friendship and would promote each other to their customers. Nesbitt was hired by British newspaper magnate

Max Aitken William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century ...

, better known as Lord Beaverbrook, to work for his

Royal Securities Corporation Royal Securities Corporation Limited was a stock brokerage firm founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in early 1903 by John F. Stairs, its first president. The company was the first brokerage firm to be opened east of Montreal, Quebec, the then ...

stock brokerage. In 1906, after undergoing training in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, Aitken sent Nesbitt to open a Royal Securities office in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, the then financial center of Canada. Nesbitt prospered while working for Royal Securities.

Nesbitt, Thomson and Company

Nesbitt had remained in touch with his friend Peter Thomson, and in 1912 the two decided to open up their own stock brokerage, Nesbitt, Thomson and Company, with offices on St. James Street in Montreal and in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...

. The business provided financing for the burgeoning

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and

natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest, and cultural value. ...

industries and underwrote stock and bond issues for the many new

electric power Electric power is the rate of transfer of electrical energy within a electric circuit, circuit. Its SI unit is the watt, the general unit of power (physics), power, defined as one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with oth ...

generating companies that were springing up across the country. Nesbitt, Thomson and Company grew to become one of the largest brokerage houses in Canada.

Power Corporation and other holdings

By 1925, Nesbitt, Thomson and Company held major equity positions in a number of major electric utilities. The two partners established

as a holding company for their substantial interests, with Nesbitt serving as its first president. In 1927, Nesbitt purchased the

Ogilvy The name Ogilvy may refer to: *Ogilvy (name) *Clan Ogilvy *Ogilvy (department store), in Montreal, Canada *Ogilvy (agency) Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Ed ...

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

in Montreal that his son James Aird would successfully run for more than 50 years. Nesbitt's second son,

Arthur Deane Arthur Deane FRSE MRIA (1875 – 1954) was a Scottish botanist and photographer. He was the first director of botany at the Ulster Museum. He specialised in trees and in photo-micrographs of cell samples. Life He was born in Glasgow on 6 June ...

, would follow in his father's footsteps at the helm of the family's brokerage/investment business.

Philanthropy

Arthur Nesbitt supported various benevolent causes, including a gift to the hospital in his

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

hometown to build a

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

sanitarium for children, in memory of his parents.

Personal life

Funeral monument of Arthur James Nesbitt

By 1910, he was married with two sons and had purchased a home in the

Westmount Westmount () is a city on the Island of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is an enclave of the city of Montreal, with a population of 19,658 as of the 2021 Canadian census. Westmount is home to schools, an arena, a pool, a public li ...

area of Montreal. On his death in 1954, Nesbitt was interred in the

Mount Royal Cemetery Mount Royal Cemetery ( French: Cimetière Mont-Royal) is a terraced cemetery on the north slope of Mount Royal in the borough of Outremont in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It opened in 1852. Temple Emanu-El Cemetery, a Reform Judaism burial ground, ...

in Montreal. In 1989 his grandson A.R. Deane Nesbitt published his life story, ''Dry Goods & Pickles: The Story of Nesbitt, Thomson''.A.R. Deane Nesbitt. ''Dry Goods & Pickles: The Story of Nesbitt, Thomson''. (1989 - Nesbitt – Toronto)