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SCHULTZ, SAMUEL DAVIES, sportsman, journalist, lawyer, politician, musician, and judge; b. 21 Oct. 1865 in Victoria, son of Herman Schultz and Elizabeth Davies; m. 5 Jan. 1904 Maude Dunwell Squarebriggs in Vancouver, and they had three sons; d. 25 Aug. 1917 in North Vancouver.

Samuel D. Schultz was the son of Jewish pioneers in Victoria who both died while he was young. Raised by an uncle in his native city, Schultz graduated with a ba from the University of Toronto in 1888. He subsequently attended Osgoode Hall law school and returned to practise in British Columbia, in Nelson for some months in 1893, in Victoria from 1893 to 1902, and then in Vancouver. He was appointed a county court judge in 1914, the first Jew in Canada named to the judiciary. During his years in Victoria, Schultz was an active member of the Congregation Emmanu-El, where he served as vice-president continuously between 1897 and 1902. He lectured occasionally at the synagogue and delivered an oration at the memorial service the congregation held to mark the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. In these years too he emerged as a dedicated supporter of the Conservative party, especially after his passionate speech in 1899 to a Conservative rally in Victoria. His involvement in active politics peaked when he was an alderman in North Vancouver for 1909–10 and served a term as president of the North Vancouver Conservative Association in 1912.

Schultz was an outspoken advocate of Jewish rights. His letter of 8 Oct. 1898 to the Victoria Daily Times shows that he was one of the first individuals in Canada to recognize that anti-Semitism lay at the heart of the Dreyfus affair. Prominent in the Vancouver Jewish community after his move to that city, Schultz was the founding president of the Samuel Lodge of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith. Some seven weeks before his death, he was a delegate to the national Zionist convention held in Winnipeg, where he urged support for the British war effort as the best guarantee of Zionist aspirations.

A man of many accomplishments and activities, during his days as a student and early years as a lawyer Schultz had also been involved in journalism in Toronto, Victoria, and Vancouver, writing articles on topics as diverse as sports, music, and drama. His enthusiasm for sports embraced lacrosse, rowing, tennis, and – above all else – baseball. He was renowned as a pitcher, having led the University of Toronto team to victory over Cornell in the first Canadian-American inter-varsity game. Until his elevation to the bench he pitched for the Vancouver lawyers in their annual game against their counterparts from Seattle. He was an accomplished musician and a composer of some repute; “The charge at dawn,” a march dedicated to the Canadian soldiers who died at Paardeberg during the South African War, was his most celebrated composition. He was also a charter-member of the Native Sons of British Columbia, a prize-winning member of the Horticultural Society of North Vancouver, and a charter-member of the Connaught Masonic Lodge.

Schultz died suddenly at the age of 51 while playing tennis. He was survived by his wife and their sons. Obituaries recalled the “brief and brilliant career” tragically cut short by his death and remarked on “his fairness and knowledge of the law.”

Phyllis M. Senese