Frederick William Stobart (1859-1935)

Dry goods merchant.

Born in Durham County, England on 27 January 1859, son of William Stobart and Sophia Wylde, he was educated at Wellington College and Cambridge University, after which he went into marine engineering. In 1880, he came to Winnipeg to look after his father’s fur trading posts in the Western Canada.

Stobart abandoned the fur trade business as settlers began to arrive on the Canadian prairies, instead going into the wholesale dry goods business. On 28 June 1899, his business was incorporated as Stobart, Sons & Company, with the majority of stock held by Stobart and his brothers. He also served as Vice-President of the Canadian Fire Insurance Company, a local director of the Edinburgh Life Insurance Company of Scotland, a member of the advisory board of the Canada Life Assurance Company, and a director of the Northern Bank and the Northern Trust Company. He was President of the Winnipeg Board of Trade (1893) and the Manitoba Club (1903), and a founding member, in 1905, of the St. Charles Country Club.

On 8 January 1885, he married Margaret Sophia Susan Brydges, daughter of Charles John Brydges. They had five children, all born in Winnipeg: Grace Margaret (b 1886), Amy Millicent (b 1887), Phoebe Brydges (b 1889), Frank Elliot (b 1892), and William (b 1895).

He died in England on 11 December 1935.

Sources:

E. L. Drewry family scrapbooks, Volume 8, Archives of Manitoba.

Profile revised: 13 September 2009

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