Symington, Herbert James

Person

Symington, Herbert James

1881-1965

Herbert J. Symington (1881-1965) was born in Sarnia, Ontario. He attended Sarnia Collegiate, the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. Graduating in 1905, he went to Winnipeg and, in the same year, was called to the Manitoba bar. After serving a brief apprenticeship he began his own practice. From 1906 to 1909 he was the solicitor for the Grand Trunk Railway. He became a railway and freight rates expert, representing all the western provinces in freight rate cases. In 1918 he became a King's Counsel. In 1929 he accepted an an offer to move to Montreal and become vice-president and general counsel of Royal Securities and a director of a number of other large industrial enterprises. In 1936 he was appointed a director of the Canadian National Railways, and in 1937 became a director of Trans-Canada Air Lines where, in 1941, he took over the presidency. In 1947 Symington resigned after six years as the president of TCA, although he remained on the Board of Directors. He had been a director of the C.N.R. for twenty-one years when he resigned in 1957. In 1956 he was appointed to the Canadian Privy Council, an honour rarely bestowed outside the Cabinet. He died in 1965.

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