(1 March 1864-26 Jan. 1940), lawyer and businessman. (A.L. Smith, Alex L. Smith) Born at Pakenham, Ont. Parents: James Smith and his wife Margaret McDonald. He was educated by his father, and also at Cornwall High School and Queen’s University (B.A., 1883). After law study in the Cornwall office of Maclennan, Liddell and Cline (see Donald Ban Maclennan) and at Osgoode Hall, he was called to the bar, 1887, and from that year he practised law in Alexandria. A.L. Smith was married on 1 June 1898 to Grace N. Helena McDougald, the daughter of John A. McDougald. In late 1904 he was appointed Alexandria’s first police magistrate, to obviate the difficult situation by which the Alexandria town council sometimes laid charges which the mayor afterwards dealt with as magistrate. In 1906, at a meeting in Maxville, he was one of the speakers favouring separation of GC from SDG. (Glengarry News 19 Oct. 1906) Smith was mayor of Alexandria for the year 1909. Before that year 1909 was over, however, he moved to Cornwall, and was given a banquet in Alexandria on leaving the town where he had been a lawyer for almost 23 years. (Cornwall Standard 8 Oct. 1909)

     In Cornwall, he was a law partner of Robert A. Pringle, formerly an MP, the son of Judge J.F. Pringle. After the death in 1907 of R.R. (Big Rory) McLennan, Smith was solicitor for McLennan’s estate, and was one of the 4 executors of the estate. While a lawyer in Cornwall, Smith became associated with John McMartin of the Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines (the wives of these two men were sisters). From 1918, A.L. Smith was the solicitor for the John McMartin estate. Smith had a law practice in Toronto from 1922, moving from Cornwall to Toronto about the end of that year. (Cornwall Standard 28 Dec. 1922) An obituary writer explained the move to Toronto by saying “his connection with the great mining interests made it necessary.” It was apparently after going to Toronto that Smith became a director of the Trusts and Guarantee Co., Ltd. In 1927 he was made a K.C. When Henry Timmins died (1930), Smith became president of the Canadian Mining and Finance Co. Ltd.

     His rise in the world seems to have been rather slow. He was aged about 45 when he left Alexandria, and about 58 when he left Cornwall. Doubtless the very considerable success he eventually achieved owed something to the McMartin and McDougald connections. Perhaps politics did not deeply interest him, but he was sufficiently involved to be president of the Conservative Association of Glengarry and Stormont. He is said to have refused nomination as candidate for the Glengarry-Stormont federal constituency in 1921, and also to have refused the GC nomination on one or more other occasions. While in Alexandria he organized a lodge of the Independent Order of Foresters. Involved in cricket in his earlier years, he later followed curling and golf. In 1891, when he was captain of the Alexandria Cricket Club, David Fraser was president and A. G. F. Macdonald was secretary-treasurer. Smith was the brother of Mrs George W. Shepherd.

     Smith became a Roman Catholic but earlier was a Presbyterian. While a Protestant he was a Mason. He died at his home in Toronto. (children surviving him: 5) The funeral service was at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Toronto, with burial in Mount Hope Cemetery, Toronto.

Globe and Mail 27 Jan. 1940, Standard Freeholder 26 & 29 Jan. 1940 (portrait), Glengarry News 2 Feb. 1940 (QF) * Can. Who’s Who 1936-7 (vol. for 1938-9 just refers to this entry) * Harkness: index * text of A.L. Smith’s address on the war, Cornwall Standard 18 March 1915 (at event at which this was presented, Rupert Mar sang and recited) * picture of his house in Alexandria (with his professional advert. same issue) Glengarrian 23 Dec. 1904 * passes final law examination, Cornwall Freeholder 11 Feb. 1887, cited DTL SFH 15 Feb. 1947 * to begin law practice, Alexandria, Glengarrian 11 March 1887 * denies slur on farmers, Glengarrian 15 Nov. 1889 * cricket: CF 10 April 1891, cited in DTL SFH 9 April 1949 * accidental death of his grandson, G.R. Berthon of Montreal, aged 9, GN 11 Aug. 1939