THE ADVOCATE 775
VOL. 80 PART 5 SEPTEMBER 2022
By the mid-20th century, Bendor was also, reputedly, the world’s third
wealthiest man.
In the late 1940s, Bendor tasked his chief agent, George Ridley, with
exploring potential investments in Canada—and with persuading the
British treasury to release the equivalent of up to $15 million (today worth
around $185 million) to make them. Ridley had no success in finding suitable
investments until, in 1951, he visited the then-secretary of the New
Westminster Board of Trade, Frank Wilson. Through the window, Wilson
pointed out to Ridley the hazy, flat island in the Fraser River known as
Annacis Island.16 Wilson wondered aloud why it had not interested prospective
purchasers and suggested it might be bought cheaply. That very day,
Ridley and Wilson visited the island (by boat, as a then-planned causeway
from Queensborough, across Annacis Channel, had not yet been built).
Ridley took on the mission of acquiring the island from its mix of local
and English owners for the purpose of building one of the era’s new industrial
estates. His mission succeeded shortly before Bendor’s death, in 1953,
with Annacis Island’s acquisition. A causeway (since replaced by bridges:
the Annacis Island Swing Bridge toward the east of the island and the
Annacis Channel Bridge midway along the island) was built from Lulu
Island and within several years, the eastern end of the immense industrial
park was developed. Annacis Island was Grosvenor Group Limited’s “first
significant international investment”.17
Most of the thousands of commuters who travel over and through
Annacis Island on a daily basis likely do so without realizing its deeply English
connections. Travelling southbound over the Annacis Channel Bridge
but turning into the industrial park rather than proceeding toward the Alex
Fraser Bridge, the round wheatsheaf (garb)-inspired corporate logo18 that
the Grosvenor Group used until recently is visible on the “Annacis Business
Park” marker. Place names on the island that have distinct Grosvenor connections
include:
• Grosvenor Square, which is located toward the eastern and earliest
developed side of the Annacis Island. 1 Grosvenor Square on
Annacis Island is the home of the offices of the Teamsters Union,
Local 31. Grosvenor Square is also, as Anglophiles will know, the
name of a square in the Grosvenor-developed Mayfair district of
London. 1 Grosvenor Square in London used to be the location of
the Canadian High Commission.
• Eaton Way, which is a road on the western side of Annacis Island.
Eaton, in Cheshire, has been home to the Grosvenor family since
the 1440s, when Ralph Grosvenor married Joan Eaton. (As an