Person Page - 15

One of our senior members, Percy Stewart McLean, died suddenly on his seventieth birthday, October 16, 1957.

Mr. McLean was born in Bruce County, Ontario, and received his early education in Port Elgin and Owen Sound. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1909 with first-class honors in mathematics and immediately entered the service of the North American Life. This service was interrupted by the First World War, during which he served with distinction in the Canadian Field Artillery. Before he returned to Canada he qualifed as an Associate of the Institute of Actuaries in 1919. In 1924 he became a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of America.

When the T. Eaton Life Assurance Company was created in 1920, Mr. McLean was appointed Manager of that company. In 1922 he joined the staff of the Canada Life Assurance Company in the Group Division. He was appointed Assistant Actuary in 1924 and in 1925 was attached to the British Isles Division of the Company where he served as Branch Actuary until shortly before his retirement in 1950 and made a valuable contribution to the development and success of the Company's operations overseas. Following his retirement, he acted as tutor in mathematics at the University of Toronto School of Practical Science and also assisted on a part-time basis in the establishment in Canada of the Holland Life Insurance Society.

Mr. McLean had many talents and interests as a mathematician, an actuary and a highly accomplished musician. Combined with these, he had a quality of friendship that endeared him to all those with whom he came in contact. This applied to the ladies as well and the surprising part of it is that he never married.

It is regrettable that only the older members of the Society had the privilege of close acquaintance with one who combined the qualities of a capable mathematician and actuary with those of a charming cultured gentleman.

His brother Jack, now living in Calgary, who also served in the Canada Life for a number of years, is the only survivor of his family.¹⁰

Pte. John Fair was killed in action August 22, according to information contained in a telegram received by his father, David Fair, of 1515 Camosun Street, yesterday afternoon. No details as to the manner in which the young Victorian met his death are given in the brief communication.
Pte. Fair, who was nineteen years of age, was a native of Paisley, Ontario. He came to Victoria in company with his parents fifteen years ago and was educated at the Boys' Central School, this city. Following the outbreak of war he joined the 143rd Battalion, British Columbia Bantams, and went overseas with that unit in February last. Not long after his arrival in England he crossed to France, being attached to the 47th Battalion, and had been actively engaged at the front until he met his death.
He was a member of the Senior Boys' Class of the First Presbyterian Church Sunday School and was a regular attendant up to the time that he left the city. In the last letter which he wrote home from the front he asked particularly to be remembered to the members of the class and the pastor and teacher.
Besides the parents, there survive a sister, all living at Camosun Street, and a brother, who lived at Swift Current, Sask.⁶

Another prominent Hornby resident passed away quite suddenly last Thursday morning in the person of the late Peter David Salter at the age of 62 years.
Mr Salter was born in Bruce County, Ontario. He lived for a time in Toronto where he was engaged by the T T C as motorman. About twenty years ago he came to this community where he has since conducted a successful milling and seed-buying business. He became widely known and highly regarded for his honesty and integrity in all his dealings with his many clients.
The late Mr Salter was of genial manner and of kindly disposition. He was generous towards those in need, and ever ready to lend his aid in the promotion of every good cause. Because of this, he made a host of friends who will miss him greatly. He was an adherent supporter of Bethel United Church, Drumquin.
He is survived by his widow, formerly Flora McLean and four brothers and three sisters, to whom the sympathy of all is extended in their bereavement. He was prominent in fraternal organizations, being an active member of Streetsville Lodge, AF and AM, Milton Lodge, IOOF and Hornby LOL.
The funeral service was held at his late residence at Agerton on Saturday December 18th, and was very largely attended. Interment was made in Evergreen Cemetery, Milton. Full Masonic rites were conducted at the graveside by members of Streetsville Lodge, AF and AM, of which he was an official member.⁴

The red and white silks with red stars of Jack Stafford’s racing stable excited racing fans for more than a quarter of a century. Before Stafford’s death at age 86 in June, 1981, his horses had won 131 stakes races, ranking Stafford Farms fourth on the list of all-time leading stakes-winning owners in Canada, behind only E. P. Taylor’s Windfields Farm, Conn Smythe and the legendary Seagram Stable of another era. The first horse he ever ran was a filly he’d purchased that winter in Florida, Play Tag, at Toronto’s Dufferin racetrack in 1950. She finished second and earned $310. His horses that year earned $11,600. In 1975 he was Canada’s leading money-winning owner when his stable took home $515,599. He won this title again in 1977, 1978 and 1979.

Ironically, Stafford’s big money-winning year in 1975 came when he missed winning Canada’s major race - the Queen’s Plate, a race he won in 1973 with Royal Chocolate and again in 1974 with Amber Herod. Those two years provided Stafford with great enjoyment as he had the opportunity to meet Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, in 1973, and Her Royal Highness, The Queen Mother, the following year in the winner’s circle.


Stafford’s good colt Sound Reason won the Plate in 1977. However, the best colt Stafford ever owned, Overskate, was the favorite in 1978 but lost by a neck to Regal Embrace. Overskate, a member of the Hall of Fame, was Canada’s leading money winner when he retired in 1980 with earnings of $791,640. A champion at two, three and four and twice Canada’s Horse of the Year, Overskate won a record ten Sovereign Awards and 18 stakes races here and in the United States.

Stafford was at times a gruff, straight-forward man, but his sense of humor was keen and he knew how to lose and how to enjoy his horses, which he kept on his farms in King, where he made his home, and another at Port Elgin, Ont., an area in which he was raised. He was noted for changing trainers and had nine in his first 19 years before settling on Gil Rowntree, who held the job the longest, from 1967 until Stafford’s death.

Nicknamed the “Jam and Jelly Man”, Stafford (who owned Stafford Foods), was a traveling salesman, selling food products across Canada before tackling the sport of racing and breeding. His band of high-class broodmares at his farm in Port Elgin made him one of the leading breeders in Canada. Stafford’s many other stakes winners include Proud Tobin, Allan Blue, Tara Road, Amber Sherry, Good Port, Cesca, Ambassador B., Sharp Sherry, Royal Tara, Gurkhas Band and Tudor Queen. He was awarded a Sovereign Award in 1976 as Man of the Year for his many contributions to the sport. He also served as president of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society.⁵