User:Geo Swan/James Muir

Newly arrived from Scotland, to take up his first position with the Royal Bank of Canada, 21 year-old James Muir, in Moose Jaw.

James Muir was a Canadian banker. Muir was born in Scotland, where his father was a roadman, and his mother a domestic servant.

Muir was a promising student at the high school he attended in Peebles, and started working at a bank, in Peebles, the afternoon of the day he graduated. His initial salary, in 1907, was just 10 pounds a year.

In 1912 Muir took a job with the Royal Bank of Canada, where his first position was as a "junior", in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. In 1917 he was promoted to Inspector, in Winnipeg, where his responsibilities included auditing all the Winnipeg branches.

The Dictionary of Canadian Biographies noted that, unlike other young bankers, there is no sign he considered joining the Army during World War One.

In 1919 another promotion took him to the bank's headquarters, in Montreal. The bank's internal policies barred employees from marrying until they could earn enough to support a family, and Muir married in 1919.