Francis Wolferstan Thomas

Francis Wolferstan Thomas (January 9, 1834 – 1900) was a Canadian banker and a philanthropist in Montreal.

Born January 9, 1834, at Morwenstow, Cornwall, England, the son of the Rev. Francis Wolferstan Thomas, Rural Dean and Rector of Parkham, North Devon, a family held living through the Reverend's mother's family, the Wolferstans of Berry House, Hartland, Devon, descended from the Wolferstans of Statfold Hall, Staffordshire. Francis' mother was “a lady of the ancient and important family of Shearme, whose seat is Woodlands, Cornwall”. The Thomas family were formerly possessed of large estates in Glamorganshire.

Educated at Sherborne School, Dorset, he had a classical education as his parents desired for him to enter the church, like his father and grandfather (a Fellow of Oxford University) before him. But Francis wanted a military career, and at the age of seventeen, with no hope of his parents changing their minds, he instead left home for Rice Lake (Ontario), with the intention to seek his fortune farming.

In Canada, he met someone who professed to be able to teach him agriculture, but his instructor proved worthless, so he found employment on the Grand Trunk Railway. Idle and adrift in a world of strangers, he was not disheartened and soon secured for himself a position in the Bank of Upper Canada. He was quickly noticed, and offered a job in the Toronto branch of the Bank of Montreal, and his hard work there paid dividends, rising to the position of Manager of the London, Ontario branch office in 1865.

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