Article

Francis Dagger

Published Online February 21, 2008

Last Edited July 17, 2015

Francis Dagger telephone expert (b at Liverpool, Eng 3 June 1865; d at Unionville, Ont 21 June 1945). He was an active participant in the movement for public ownership of Canadian telephones, and his efforts are reflected today in government ownership of telephone systems in the Prairies.

Francis Dagger telephone expert (b at Liverpool, Eng 3 June 1865; d at Unionville, Ont 21 June 1945). He was an active participant in the movement for public ownership of Canadian telephones, and his efforts are reflected today in government ownership of telephone systems in the Prairies. After gaining experience with privately owned telephone companies in England 1881-99, he moved to Canada, joining the Bell Telephone Co for 11 months. By 1900 he was agitating for municipal ownership of telephones by Toronto.

Retained by the federal government to report on telephones in Canada and England (1903), Dagger was then appointed technical adviser to the Select Committee on Telephone Systems, chaired by Sir William Mulock (1905). He was hired both by Manitoba (1905) and Saskatchewan (1907) as a telephone expert to facilitate provincial takeover of Bell's operations in these provinces. He served as supervisor of telephone systems for the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board from 1910 until his retirement in 1931.