Portrait - Major General John William Stewart CB CMG, Honourary Colonel, Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, 1914 - 1938. The photo is from the 1920s. John Stewart was a Canadian financier and railway builder. He was born in Nedd, Assynt, Sutherland, Scotland on 4 December 1860; died 24 September 1938 Vancouver, British Columbia. OBITUARY: THE SCOTSMAN 10 OCTOBER 1938 PAGE 11 MILITARY ENGINEER NOTED SCOT’S DEATH IN CANADA MAJOR GENERAL STEWART Major General J W Stewart, one of Canada’s most noted Scotsmen, builder of railroads, who once was described as “one of the men who really helped to win the Great War” has died at his home in Vancouver after a lengthy illness. He was 75. Through his railway construction work, Major General Stewart was linked with the opening of undeveloped areas in Canada (writes a correspondent.) During the Great War he commanded the Canadian Railway troops with the task of constructing railways behind the trenches. Major General Stewart reorganised rail transport behind the entire British Western Front and in Palestine, receiving his military award for this work. He assisted financially in raising the 72nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. He was then promoted to Brigadier General and then Major General in March 1917. He was mentioned in dispatches four times. Of his great military railway work in France, T P O’Connor wrote: “Stewart ran up railways with rapidity that astounded the authorities.” In pre-war days in Canada, Stewart assisted in the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, the Pacific Great Eastern and the Canadian Nothern. He also was connected with the double tracking of the Canadian Pacific railway from Fort William to Winnipeg. Stewart arrived in Canada from Scotland in 1882. He had 10s in his pocket. His first work in the new land was as a farm labourer. Later, he obtained a job as axeman when Vancouver was being laid out in 1885. Then he became an engineer with a construction firm building railways in Montana, and later a partner in the firm. He was president of the Northern Construction Co and J W Stewart Ltd at his death. In tribute, the Canadian Defence Minister, Mr Ian Mackenzie - himself a native of Sutherland - described Stewart as “one of the great Canadians of our time.” Major General Stewart was married in 1901 to Elizabeth Maron, a native of Limerick, Ireland. She died in 1935. Surviving are his daughter Mrs A T McLean, and a brother Major Angus Stewart, both of Vancouver, and two sisters, Mrs Kenneth Munro Drumbeg, Scotland and Mrs Jessie Morrison, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. VANCOUVER ARCHIVES ITEM DETAILS PAGES ATTACHED