David Spencer

David Spencer

David Spencer, merchant (b at St Athan, Wales 9 Aug 1837; d at Victoria 2 Mar 1920). A farmer's son, he was apprenticed to a dry-goods merchant in Wales and came to Victoria in 1862. After operating a book and stationery business, in 1873 he bought a dry-goods store from which developed the department store which bore his name. Branches were established in Nanaimo in 1889, Vancouver in 1907 and other BC centres. Spencer, a local preacher for the Methodist Church, was cofounder of the first TEMPERANCE society on Vancouver I and a benefactor of Victoria's Protestant Orphanage and other philanthropies. His eldest child, Christopher (1868-1953), was active in the firm until it was sold to The T. Eaton Co in 1948.