Sir Thomas James Tait was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

-born rail executive.

Born in Melbourne

Melbourne, Quebec

Melbourne is a township of 950 people, part of the Le Val-Saint-François Regional County Municipality in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec.-External links:*...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, the son of Melbourne McTaggart Tait

Melbourne McTaggart Tait

Sir Melbourne McTaggart Tait was a Canadian lawyer and judge.Born in Melbourne, Canada East, studied at St Francis College and received a Bachelor of Civil Law degree from McGill University in 1862. He was called to the Bar in 1863. He served as President of the Montreal Garrick Club after 1878.He...

, Tait entered the service of the Grand Trunk Railway

Grand Trunk Railway

The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...

 in 1880, and by 1903 he was manager of transportation with Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

 company.

In March 1903 Tait was appointed Chairman of Commissioners of the Victorian Railways

Victorian Railways

The Victorian Railways operated railways in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, the Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 with a salary of £3000 per annum. During seven years in Victoria he turned an annual deficit into a profit, improved and increased the railways' rolling stock, and initiated electrification of the railways of Melbourne

Railways in Melbourne

The Melbourne rail network is operated by Metro Trains Melbourne under franchise from the Government of Victoria. The network is based on a commuter rail model centred on the Melbourne Central Business District and Flinders Street Station, rather than a rapid transit model, with a focus on...

. He was knighted in 1911, before returning to Canada.

He died at his summer home at St. Andrews

St. Andrews, New Brunswick

St. Andrews is a Canadian town in Charlotte County, New Brunswick.It is sometimes referred to in tourism marketing by its unofficial nickname "St. Andrews-by-the-sea".-Geography:St...

, New Brunswick

New Brunswick

New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...

.