Andrew Robertson

Andrew Robertson (18 June 1827 – 29 March 1890) was a successful Scottish dry goods merchant in Montreal. He was best known as Chairman of the Montreal Harbour Commission. He purchased and donated the land on which the Erskine Presbyterian Church was built, and was president and Governor of the Montreal General Hospital. He was the first President of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada and the Commercial Travellers' Association of Canada. He was also President of the Montreal Board of Trade, the Dominion Board of Trade and the Royal Canadian Insurance Company.

Early life in Scotland

Robertson was born 18 June 1827, in Paisley, the son of Alexander Robertson and Grant Stuart Macdonald (1805–1828), daughter of Robert MacDonald (1778–1840) and Grant Stewart (1777–1854) of Perth, Perthshire. She died 13 September 1827 in Paisley. Andrew was a first cousin of James Robertson (1831–1914) who founded Robertson's Marmalade in 1864. In 1840, he moved to Glasgow and worked for the next four years in a dry goods store. At the same time he took a position in a manufacturing company and proving a success he was made a partner in 1848. In 1850 at Glasgow, he married Agnes Bow, but following medical advice, he immigrated with his young family to Montreal in 1853. The meeting, attended by more than a hundred merchants and business leaders, debated whether the bridge would benefit railway development and commerce or obstruct navigation in the port of Montreal. He dealt with a large deficit that he had inherited and undertook improvements to the harbour that kept it competitive in the shipping industry. Margaret Eliza Robertson, married James Alexander Strathy (1857–1901), son of James Breckinridge Strathy and Elvira Lee. They were the parents of seven children. John Bow Robertson, of Montreal