McGill Libraries
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Tait, Thomas James, Sir, 1864-1940
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
1864-1940
History
Sir Thomas James Tait was born on July 24, 1864, in Melbourne, Quebec.
He was a prominent railway, mining, and industrial executive. Educated at McGill University, he entered the service of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1880, and by 1903 he was manager of transportation with Canadian Pacific Railway company. In 1903, he was appointed Chairman of Commissioners of the Victorian Railways, Australia. During seven years in Victoria, he turned an annual deficit into a profit, improved and increased the railways' rolling stock, and initiated electrification of the railways of Melbourne (1913). The red carriages of the new electric trains were known as “Tait cars”. He was knighted in 1911, before returning to Canada.
He was also a president of Parkhill Gold Mines, the Montreal branch of the Royal Empire Society, and the Fredericton and Grand Lake Coal and Railway Company. In 1928, he received the honorary degree of LL. D from the University of New Brunswick.
In 1890, he married Emily St Aubert Cockburn. He died on July 25, 1940, in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.