Arthur Williams McCurdy

He was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, the son of David McCurdy and Mary Archibald.

He moved to Baddeck, where his father took over the store established by his son-in-law Angus Tupper,[1] with his family at the age of nine and was educated there and at Whitby, Ontario.

The business failed in 1887 and McCurdy became private secretary to Alexander Graham Bell, who he had met in Baddeck.

He was president of the British Columbia Natural History Society and contributed an article about Victoria to the National Geographic Magazine.

McCurdy helped establish the Victoria centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and served as its vice-president; McCurdy lobbied for the establishment of the Dominion Dominion Astrophysical Observatory on Vancouver Island, for a brief time the site of the largest telescope in the world.