Robert Wilson Reford

His father was the founder of the Robert Reford Company, a shipping agency established in Montreal in 1866.

In 1888, he began his apprenticeship in business, working as a Purser on board a Thomson Line vessel in the Mediterranean.

There he was placed in charge of the Thermopylae, the former clipper ship which Robert Reford had acquired in 1890 to carry rice from the Far East to Victoria.

During his sojourn in British Columbia, he photographed various first nation communities along the coast of British Columbia including the Kitlope at Wakasu in Gardner Canal, the Chinese community in Victoria and the Mount Royal Rice Mills.

In 1902, they built their Montreal home at 300 Drummond Street[1] in the Golden Square Mile, designed by architect Robert Findlay.