Arthur James Nesbitt

Who was Arthur James Nesbitt?

Arthur James Nesbitt was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist who was a cofounder of Nesbitt, Thomson and Company stockbrokerage and the Power Corporation of Canada.

Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Arthur Nesbitt first worked as a dry goods salesman, peddling products to area merchants. During the course of his travels he met Peter Thomson, a pickle salesman for the Canadian arm of the H. J. Heinz Company. The two struck up a friendship and would promote each other to their customers. Nesbitt would get his big break when he met Max Aitken, a brilliant young business investor who went on to become a newspaper magnate in Great Britain best known by his title, Lord Beaverbrook. Impressed with Nesbitt's business savvy and marketing skills, Aitken hired him to work for his Royal Securities Corporation stockbrokerage. After undergoing training at the stockbrokerage office in London, England, in 1906 Aitken sent Arthur Nesbitt to open a Royal Securities office in Montreal, Quebec, the then financial center of Canada.

Arthur Nesbitt prospered while working for Royal Securities in Montreal and by 1910 was married with two sons and had purchased a small home at 578 Lansdowne Ave. in fashionable Westmount. His continued business success would allow him to later build a mansion at 41 Forden Avenue in Westmount.