James Muir
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James Muir (11 November 1891 – 10 April 1960) was a Scottish-Canadian banker who was CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) from 1949 to 1960.[1]
Life in Scotland
Muir was born in Scotland, where his father was a roadman, and his mother a domestic servant.[1]
Muir was a promising student at the high school he attended in Peebles.[1] In 1907 Muir started working at the Peebles branch of the Commercial Bank of Scotland, on the afternoon of the day he graduated.[2] His initial salary was just 10 pounds a year.[3]a
In 1911, he met a Canadian who introduced him to the Royal Bank of Canada.[1]
Career in Canada
In January 1912, he emigrated to Canada to work for the bank.[2] His first position was as a "junior", in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.[1] In 1917 he was promoted to Inspector, in Winnipeg, where his responsibilities included auditing all the Winnipeg branches.
The Dictionary of Canadian Biographies noted that, unlike other young bankers, there is no sign he considered joining the Army during World War One.[1]
In 1919 another promotion took him to the bank's headquarters, in Montreal. The bank's internal policies barred employees from marrying until they could earn enough to support a family.[1] In 1919, Muir married Phyllis Marguerite Brayley.
In 1949, he replaced Sydney Dobson as president.[1] During his time as RBC's president, the bank grew significantly, in part due to his close relationships with elite politicians, bankers, and corporate attorneys including Quebec's premier Maurice Duplessis, Canadian prime minister Louis St. Laurent, Canadian cabinet minister C. D. Howe, bankers such as Graham Towers, and corporate attorneys like Lazarus Phillips. On 10 April 1960, he died of a massive heart attack while driving in Scotland. He is buried at Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "Biography – MUIR, JAMES – Volume XVIII (1951-1960)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Archived from the original on 2023-01-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20230117022217/http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/muir_james_18E.html. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Duncan McDowall (1993). Quick to the Frontier: Canada's Royal Bank. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 9780771055041. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20221226082047/http://www.rbc.com/history/_assets-custom/pdf/Quick-to-the-Frontier-Chapter-3.pdf. Retrieved 2023-05-09. "Well into the 1950s, James Muir, the archetypical bank clerk turned bank president, attributed success in banking neither to 'spasmodic genius nor to occasional bursts of energy' but to 'sustained performance'."
- ↑ John Cleghorn (summer 1998). "Canadian Banking: The Scottish Legacy". The Scots Canadian (1): p. 5. Archived from the original on 2023-05-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20230510065834/https://p10.secure.hostingprod.com/@scottishstudies.com/ssl/vol-01-ssf-newsletter-summer-1998.pdf. Retrieved 2023-05-09. "Some of the Scottish bank boys did eventually make it to the top of the banking profession. Let me give you just one such example. One day in 1907, a fifteen year old Scottish lad by the name of James Muir left high school in Peebles, skipped his lunch and by 1:00 p.m. found himself sitting on an accountant's stool in the Commercial Bank of Scotland. His annual salary was ten pounds."
