Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal (1820-1914), was a Canadian politician, diplomat, philanthropist, and business leader with extensive interests in the fur trade, railroads, and banking.

Donald A. Smith was born on Aug. 6, 1820, at Forres, Morayshire, Scotland. His father was a modestly successful merchant. Donald was educated at the Anderson Institution, Forres. In 1853 he married Isabella Hardisty, daughter of a Hudson's Bay Company official. Their only child was Margaret Charlotte, the heir to Smith's fortune and barony.

John Stuart, a Hudson's Bay Company trader and Smith's uncle, secured Smith's appointment to a company clerkship in 1838. After serving at Lachine and Tadoussac he was transferred in 1847 to Labrador, where he remained 13 years and became a financier. Business associates loaned him their savings, which he used to purchase Bank of Montreal shares. Smith rose through the ranks of the Company and became a chief trader, a chief...