McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Wainwright, Wm. (William), 1840-1914
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1840-1914
History
William Wainwright was born on April 30, 1840, in Manchester, England.
He was a railway executive. In 1858, he entered the service of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway as a Secretary to the General Manager. In 1862, he moved to Canada to serve as chief clerk in the accountant's office of the Grand Trunk Railway. Over the next fifty-two years, he held many leading offices in Grand Trunk. In 1911, he rose to the position of Senior Vice-President and the Second Vice-President of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Wainwright developed and maintained a thorough understanding of the finance, history, and physical character of the Grand Trunk Railway, often appearing before Parliament in Ottawa on behalf of the company. In conjunction with his duties at the Grand Trunk, he was a director of the Montreal Telegraph Company and vice-president of the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company. Wainwright Basin in British Columbia was named in his honour in 1908.
In 1867, he married Rosabella Hilda Arnold (1848–1876), and in 1878, he remarried Mary Emily Arnold (1850–1905). He died on May 14, 1914, in Atlantic City, New Jersey and is buried in Montreal, Quebec.