The Royal George Hotel was built on College St., Antigonish in 1906. It was the premier hotel in the town for many years due to the luxury of having hot and cold running water. C.E. Gregory, local barrister, was the man who had the building erected. It operated successfully as the Royal George until the early 1970s, when new ownership changed the name to the Bonnie Brae Inn. Since that time, the ownership has changed once more and the old name has been restored. No hotel has operated from the building since c. 1978, but several small businesses and offices are located on site. At the time the first daybook (1941-1942) was in use R.K MacDonald was the owner of the Royal George Hotel. He had previously been partners with Joseph Kennedy, who had bought the hotel from its original owner, C.E. Gregory. However, Kennedy only ran the hotel for a short period of time and MacDonald took over. At the time of the third and forth daybooks (1952-1957), George Armour was the operator of the hotel.
The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo is one of the world's largest annual indoor shows. First staged in 1979, when Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, opened the original Nova Scotia Tattoo, it became the Nova Scotia International Tattoo in 1984. On the occasion of her 80th Birthday in 2006, the Queen, Elizabeth II, changed the name to the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. Typically, the show features over 2,000 world-class Canadian and international military and civilian performers in a two-and-a-half hour family show featuring music, dance, acrobatics, drama and comedy in a number of innovative acts
The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron traces its beginnings to the Halifax Yacht Club formed on 19 August 1837. The club was incorporated in 1860 and was presented with the Prince of Wales Cup during a visit from HRH Edward, Prince of Wales. The Prince became the club's patron in 1861 and its name changed accordingly to the Royal Halifax Yacht Club. The Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (established 1875) merged with the Royal Halifax Yacht Club in 1880 to form the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (incorporated 1888). The squadron co-sponsors the biennial Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race and was the club-of-record for the "True North" America's Cup challenge in 1984, and for "Canada II" in 1987.
Benjamin Royer was a physician and researcher in public health, and taught in Dalhousie's Faculty of Medicine from 1919-1923. He born near Middleburg, Pennsylvania, on 13 December 1870 and graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1899, with a residency at the Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia from 1899-1900. He worked at Jefferson Hospital (1902-1903), the Contagious Disease Hospital (1903-1908), the [Pennsylvania] State Department of Health (1908-1919, 1947-1948), and the Halifax Health Commission in Massachusetts (1919-1923), which is how he made his connection with Dalhousie. From 1919-1921 he lectured in medical jurisprudence at Dalhousie, and from 1920-1923 he was the director of the Public Health Course for Nurses. He returned to the United States in 1924 to take up a position at the American Child Health Association, then the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness (1926-1932), the State Emergency Child Health Committee (1933-1938), and the State Sanatorium at Cresson (1943-1947). Dr. Royer died on 16 February 1961 in Greencastle, Pennsylvania.
William Norman Rudolf was born on 27 January 1835, the son of William Rudolf (1791-1859) and Anna Matilda Oxner (1811-1886). His father was a successful merchant in the West India trade and served in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly (1826-1838) and subsequently on the Legislative Council until his death. W.N. Rudolf began his working career in Pictou as a clerk for the Bank of Nova Scotia in 1853 and subsequently took on the responsibility of running the office of W.M. McKay. He married Catherine “Cassie” Matthews Dawson on 15 November 1859; she was a daughter of Robert Dawson and related to Sir John William Dawson, Principal of McGill College 1855-1893. Rudolph became a partner in the firm Primrose and Rudolf of Pictou, Nova Scotia, from 1864 until the business was dissolved in 1870. In 1866 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the County of Pictou. He moved to Great Britain in September 1870 and established a general commission business in partnership with Alexander Scott in Glasgow, Scotland, under the name Scott, Rudolf & Co. In 1875 the Rudolph family moved to Rock Ferry, Birkenhead, England and Rudolf established a partnership with Crow, Bogart & Co., later Crow, Rudolf & Co. of Liverpool, England (established 1883). This enterprise primarily related to the timber trade with North America and Rudolph was recorded as a merchant seaman in census information from that time period. He died on 17 December 1886 at his home in Liverpool, England.