He was a co-founder of the Mount Royal Club, and he had owned the land on which the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal was built, becoming a principal shareholder with a significant influence on its image and future.

He was born in 1854 at London, Canada West, the seventh son of John Walsingham Cooke Meredith and his wife, Sarah Pegler (1818–1900).

Charles Meredith was privately educated at home before briefly attending Hellmuth College, London, and then embarking on his business career.

In 1872, Meredith started his business career with Sir Hugh Allan's Merchant's Bank, rising to the position of manager of the Western branches at Regina and Brandon.

His business was largely of an investment class, and he discouraged speculative ventures on the part of his clients, grounding his reputation in financial circles as one of the highest integrity.

Aside from the cursory one dollar, Meredith received $787,500 in preferred shares in the Carlton Hotel Company, of which $314,404 was paid to him in cash and the balance of $469,096 was covered by "goodwill, benefits and advantages".

As a wedding present, Richard Angus commissioned architect Edward Maxwell to build the newlyweds a home known as "The Gatehouse" at 3674 Peel Street in Montreal[6] (which still stands as part of the McGill Faculty of Law, known as the Angus-McIntyre House).

[11] They employed Edward Maxwell to design some additions and alterations to the house, which was added to again in 1909 by architect Robert Findlay, giving the house its present size: "An impressive country residence marked by three high gables... Hidden behind the estate's foliage, amidst many flowerbeds, was a tennis court, garages, cottages for the chauffeurs and gardeners, henhouses, greenhouses and various other auxiliary buildings.

[18] Mrs. Meredith was a godmother to some of her Angus nephews and nieces as well as to "the Montreal English theatre icon", Roseanna Seaborn Todd, granddaughter of Sir Edward Clouston, 1st Baronet.