Sir Hugh Allan (September 29, 1810 – December 9, 1882) was a Scottish-Canadian shipping magnate, financier and capitalist. By the time of his death, the Allan Shipping Line had become the largest privately owned shipping empire in the world. He was responsible for transporting millions of British immigrants to Canada, and the businesses that he established from Montreal filtered across every sphere of Canadian life, cementing his reputation as an empire builder. His home, Ravenscrag, was the principal residence of the Golden Square Mile in Montreal.
Early years in Scotland
Born at Saltcoats in North Ayrshire, Scotland, he was the second son of Captain Alexander Allan and Jean Crawford (1782–1856). He was a first cousin of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, and his father was a first cousin of the Scottish bard, Robert Burns. In 1819, Allan's father established the Allan Shipping Line, which became synonymous with transporting goods and passengers between Scotland and Montreal. Allan received a parish education at Saltcoats before starting work in 1823 at the family's counting house of Allan, Kerr & Co., of Greenock. Three years later, he was sent by his father to Montreal to work as a clerk for a grain merchant, William Kerr. In 1830, he took a year off to travel through his native Scotland (he later named his home, Ravenscrag, after his favourite childhood haunt in Ayrshire) and continued via London, New York and Upper Canada.
Rise of the Allan Line at Montreal
Returning to Montreal in 1831, Allan became a commission merchant with one of the city's leading importers, who had also acted as the Montreal agent for his family's company, J & A Allan, back in Scotland. Concentrating on shipping, shipbuilding and purchasing grain, Allan advanced rapidly, aided by capital raised and contacts gained through family connections, as well as social bonds he developed himself in the predominantly Scottish business community at Montreal. By 1835, Allan was made a partner in the firm that from then was known as Millar, Edmonstone & Co. With his father's encouragement and capital, Allan expanded the company's shipping operations, and J & A Allan (then headed by his elder brother, James, in Glasgow) became closely involved with building of the merchant fleet. By the time (1839) Hugh's younger brother, Andrew, had joined now Edmonstone, Allan & Co., it had the largest shipping capacity of any Montreal-based firm.
By the 1850s, Edmonstone & Allan was described by a credit-rating service as an "old, safe and respectable House... one of the wealthiest concerns in the Province", known for its responsible management and its links to trading houses in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Helped by Allan's spreading influence into allied shipping, railway and banking concerns, the firm was "as good as a bank". From 1863, the company became known as H & A Allan, of Montreal — one segment, but an important and intricate part of the Allan family's empire.
The Allan Royal Mail Line
In 1851, Hugh Allan had been elected President of the Montreal Board of Trade. As an entrepreneur and the chosen head of Montreal's business community, he used this position to advocate for the establishment of a regular government-subsidised steamship line between Britain, Montreal and Portland. The service, Allan declared, would deliver Royal Mail to both sides of the Atlantic Ocean while transporting immigrants to North America. Though it was Allan's idea, competition for the contract was fierce. Despite significant support on both sides of the Atlantic and careful preparation, Allan lost the bid in 1853. However, the consortium that won the contract, headed by Samuel Cunard, ran into trouble almost immediately and Allan reacted by building more ships on the Clyde, using superior technology (notably the Canadian and the Indian). These ships formed the nucleus of Allan's Montreal Ocean Steamship Company, incorporated by him and his brother, Andrew, in 1856. It was carefully created to be Canadian, but it was inextricably linked (and financed) by the Allan family in Scotland. In 1856, with the help of conservative politicians such as Sir John Rose, Sir George-Étienne Cartier and Lewis Drummond, the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company (popularly referred to as the Allan Line) wrested back the contract from Samuel Cunard. By 1859, service was weekly, and Allan reported his capital investment in the company at £3.5 million.