HENRY WILLOUGHBY LAIRD.
Henry Willoughby Laird may well be termed one of the founders of
the city of Regina, for he has been the promoter of many of its leading
business enterprises. He has thus earned for himself an enviable reputa-
tion as a constructive man of business, while in public affairs his course
has been one to win the support and confidence of his fellow citizens. Of
Scotch and Irish Canadian descent, he was born at Port Dover, Ontario,
on January 4, 1868, the son of the Rev. William H. and Elizabeth C.
(Burke) Laird. He was educated at the Jarvis Street Collegiate Insti-
tute of Toronto and spent a collegiate year at Toronto University, fol-
lowing which he drifted into journalistic work. During the ensuing ten
years he was connected with newspaper work on a Toronto daily paper
and elsewhere; three of these years he spent in the press galleries of the
Provincial Legislature and the Federal House of Commons.
It was in 1901 that Mr. Laird first came west to become private sec-
retary to the Hon. F. W. G. Haultain, a position he retained for one
year, when he left the government service to engage in the grain and
elevator business. Subsequently he devoted his energies to the whole-
sale business and established Regina's first wholesale house. He organ-
ized the Regina Storage & Forwarding Company, Limited, the main idea
of which was to enable the wholesalers and manufacturers in eastern
Canada and the United States to carry stocks at Regina, near the con-
suming public. He followed this up by personal visitations to large cen-
tres in Eastern Canada, where he pointed out the enormous market that
was awaiting development in western Canada for those who carried
stocks at such strategic points that quick deliveries might be guaranteed.
This service was utilized by many business concerns until their turnover
became sufficiently large to warrant construction of the large wholesale
buildings they occupy today and which are the pride of the city. In this
way Mr. Laird may be said to have materially assisted in laying the foun-
dation for Regina to become the great wholesale and distributing centre
that it is today. Mr. Laird was also interested in several wholesale and
jobbing concerns, with branches at Calgary and Edmonton, whose busi-
ness operations covered the three western provinces. In 1920 Mr. Laird
joined a group of insurance and financial interests in Ontario, which es-
tablished the Ontario Equitable Life & Accident Insurance Company, of
which he became vice president. This company enjoyed such a marvelous
growth that the same group were encouraged to establish a little later
the Life Reinsurance Company pf Canada, which has also proved a re-
markable success. He was elected vice president of this company also.
Later he became a director of the Northern Life Assurance Company of
London and the Merchants Casualty of Waterloo. These large com-
panies of nation-wide importance give plenty of scope for a man of his
strong personality and active mind, and he has thereby become a factor
of Canada's big business.
Mr. Laird has been prominently connected with public life ever since
he came to Saskatchewan. As early as 1903 he was elected to the city
council as an alderman and the following two years, 1904 and 1905, he
held the office of mayor. During his term of office he had the privilege
of introducing the measure which made Regina the first city in Saskat-
chewan. It was during his term of office also, that the city waterworks
was established and the electric plant was taken over as a municipal
enterprise. His political allegiance is given to the Conservative party
and in the provincial elections of 1905 and 1908 he stood for election as
his party's candidate. He was summoned to the Dominion Senate in
February of 1917. In educational affairs he has always manifested a
deep interest, for some years being chairman of the collegiate institute
board.
For four years Mr. Laird served in the Queen's Own Rifles of Toronto
and later served as captain in the Fortieth Northumberland Battalion for
seven years. He was a major in the Army Service Corps at the outbreak
of the Great war, and served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces for
three years. As lieutenant colonel he organized the Third Divisional
Train, C. E. F., and proceeded to England and France in command of
his unit.
On the 18th of September, 1888, Mr. Laird was united in marriage to
Miss Lillian Blanche Defoe, daughter of Oran W. Defoe of Port Hope,
Ontario. An interesting family of six children is the result: Homer War-
ring, of the Royal Flying Corps, who was killed in action in France, on
October 8, 1917; Lieutenant William Clarence, of Regina; Clara A., now
Mrs. Beath D. Morden of Toronto; Elza Defoe, the wife of Carl Jennings
of Hamilton; Mildred L., who married Frank Chenoweth of Regina; and
Miss Constance Estelle Laird, who lives at home. In his student days
William C. Laird won a high place in amateur sports as the champion
hockey player of Toronto University.
Henry Willoughby Laird may fairly be accorded a place among the
representative citizens of Regina and Saskatchewan. In the business
community he has been an outstanding figure for many years, and his
latest venture in the eastern world of finance and big business is the nat-
ural development of a broadened mind and irrepressible spirit. His
ability as a public man has never been questioned. A combination of
these two characteristics eminently fit him capably to represent Saskat-
chewan's interests in the councils of the country-the Senate of Canada.
Bibliography follows:
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