Robert Dunsmuir (August 31, 1825 – April 12, 1889) was a Scottish-born Canadian businessman and politician.
He was recognized as a National Historic Person by the government of Canada in 1971.
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Early life
Dunsmuir was born in Hurlford, Scotland, to 20-year-old James Dunsmuir and his wife Elizabeth in 1825. At the time of his birth, his family was engaged in the coal business in Ayrshire. Dunsmuir's grandfather, Robert, had leased coal properties and bought out local competitors in the days before the arrival of the railway in the 1840s permitting him to increase prices. In 1832, in the midst of this prosperity, Robert's mother, father, grandmother and two of his three sisters died within days of each other in a cholera epidemic which swept the area. Three years later, grandfather Robert died a relatively wealthy man, leaving a third of his estate in trust for his orphaned grandchildren. Dunsmuir was schooled locally at the Kilmarnock Academy and then at the Paisley Mercantile and Mechanical School, a training helpful in the coal business. He then went to work in local coal mines under his Aunt's husband Boyd Gilmour.