Welsh Immigrant Who Built a Department Store Chain
VANCOUVER - One of the early benefactors of the Vancouver Welsh Society was Chris T.A. Spencer, whose name appears on the cornerstone of the 76 -year old Cambrian Hall at 17th and Main.
Chris Spencer was the long-term president of the Vancouver branch of David Spencer Ltd., a chain of department stores with branches throughout British Columbia. He established the Vancouver store in 1907 in modest premises on Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver.
After a series of expansions, the Spencer Building eventually occupied the entire city block bounded by Hastings, Seymour, Cordova and Richards Streets. Today it is part of Simon Fraser University’s Harbour Centre downtown campus.
Chris Spencer, always affectionately known to his employees as Mr. Chris, was one of Vancouver’s most prominent citizens in the first half of the Twentieth Century, known for his generosity and dedicated public service. The Spencer’s store was a popular shopping venue for Vancouverites until the chain was sold to Eaton’s in 1948.
The Spencer family was always mindful of its Welsh heritage. According to one Welsh Society member, several of the Society’s functions were held in the elegant upper floor restaurant of Spencer’s store in the 1930s.
The life of David Spencer, Chris’s father, is a classic immigrant success story. He was born in 1837 on a farm near St. Athan, in the gentle rolling countryside of the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales, where his family had farmed for generations.
As a youngster, he worked as an apprentice in a draper’s shop and also served as a lay preacher in the Bridgend and Cowbridge diocese of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. These two formative influences – merchandising and religion – stayed with him for the rest of his life.
In 1862 David Spencer, along with many of his contemporaries, decided to head for the Cariboo, heeding newspaper stories of vast riches to be made in the goldfields. He arrived in Victoria as the gold fever was waning and the little town was filled with disappointed miners and various hangers-on hoping to profit from the gold rush.
Abandoning all thoughts of mining for gold, David decided to open a book store, later followed by a dry goods store, at first in partnership with another entrepreneur, and eventually on his own.
The first David Spencer department store opened on Government Street in Victoria in1878 and proved to be a very profitable business. Branches were later opened in other B.C. towns such as Nanaimo, Chilliwack and New Westminster.
David Spencer Ltd. eventually expanded into other businesses, including ranches in the interior of B.C. and the Victoria Times newspaper.
The family became prominent in Victoria society and for many years occupied a mansion in the Rockland area, just down the street from Government House and Craigdarroch Castle, the home of another Vancouver Island entrepreneur, Robert Dunsmuir. The Spencer family later donated the house to the City of Victoria and today it houses the Victoria Art Gallery.
Apart from his business interests David also held firmly to his Methodist beliefs, taught Sunday School, conducted a church choir and was a leading member of the Temperance Society, which campaigned for the prohibition of alcohol.
A year after he arrived in Victoria, he married fellow Sunday School teacher Emma Lazenby, an immigrant from Yorkshire who was as devout a Methodist as her husband.
When David Spencer decided to open a branch in Vancouver, Chris was given responsibility for the store. He eventually became president of the David Spencer Ltd. chain of stores and was also a director of several other companies, including a bank and a life insurance company.
Chris used his wealth and prominence to benefit the community. He served as president of the Board of Trade and was instrumental in the formation of the Vancouver Welfare Federation, later called the Community Chest. He was also a founding member of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Vancouver Symphony.
Inheriting his father’s religious beliefs, Chris was an active member of Ryerson United Church in Kerrisdale and was also involved in the operation of Union College on the UBC campus. During the Second World War he headed the National War Savings Campaign in B.C. and was decorated with the C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire).
The University of British Columbia was a major beneficiary of Chris Spencer’s generosity. He was involved with the university from its beginning and was a member of the Board of Governors from 1921 to 1935. Before his death in 1953, he established the Chris Spencer Foundation to provide financial assistance to enable worthy students to attend UBC and to assist organizations devoted to the service of young people.
The life of Chris Spencer is perhaps best summed up in the words of the president of the University of British Columbia at a ceremony awarding him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1949: “All who knew Mr. Chris are the richer for the experience. Many who could not know him will yet benefit from his faith in the future of British Columbia and in the young people who will live here.”
The Cambrian Hall exists as a symbol of the generosity of men like Chris Spencer who valued their Welsh heritage while at the same time making an inestimable contribution to the prosperity and future growth of British Columbia.
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