After their ten years in the United States, Dad's banking career brought the
family in 1906 to Montreal where he anf Mother were to spend the rest of their
days. After a short stay in the Windsor Hotel
,
house hunting, they moved into a terrace house on Metcalf Street (recently
overrun by part of the 4-Seasons Hotel.)
The two girls---Helen 14 and Hilda 13---were enrolled in Trafalgar School
on Simpson Street, and Stuart, aged 11, in C. S. Fosbery's school on Ontario
Street (later Lower Canada College in N.D.G.). The family joined the
congregation of Christ Church Cathedral, and in 1911 was listed in ``Who's Who''
which recorded that Dad was a member of 8 or 10 clubs, and that Mother
``received'' on 1
and 3
Thursdays.
Excerpt from ``WHO'S WHO'' 1911:
MERRETT Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Edward
Ontario Avenue:
Receives, 1st and 3rd Thursday
Clubs, Mr., Beaconsfield Golf Club
Canadian Club
Montreal Amateur Athletic Ass'n
Montreal Club
Mount Royal Club
Outremont Golf Club
Royal Montreal Golf Club
St. Maurice Fish & Game Club
Miss Helen C. Merritt (sic)
Miss Hilda W. Merritt (sic)
Mr. Stuart Merritt (sic)
Thus the Merretts quickly
integrated into Montreal society. And their status was enhanced after 4 or 5
years when Dad was able to build a fine house on Ontario Avenue int the centre
of the fashionable ``Square Mile'', with a generous slice of Montreal's
establishment as neighbours. (See App. 
)
My parents & siblings evidently liked Montreal because, except for Hilda's
late move to Ottawa, it remained their home for the rest of their lives. And
apart form summer holidays they wandered from it very rarely. Mother and Dad
once visited England together, and each went once alone , but they
never ``toured''. Neither ever boarded an aircraft (although I tried hard to
persuade Mother to exerience a short flight). Hilda went once with her husband
to England and Paris, and Helen once with hrs to visit friends in the West
Indies. Otherwise, I suspect Kingston, Toronto, Ottawa and New York to have been
their limits, and even such excursions were few in number. Stuart had two
wartime stints overseas.