Oland, Victor de Bedia

Victor Oland was born in 1913 to Sidney Culverwell Oland and Linda de Bedia. He married Nancy Jane Metcalf in 1939, with whom he had four children: Sidney, Peter, Susan, and Victoria. He was educated at Dalhousie University and Pembroke College, Oxford. Between 1946 and 1950 he served with the Canadian Army Reserves and was deployed in the South Pacific, attached to the United States Forces. He rejoined in 1956 and retired in 1960 with the rank of Brigadier. He was president and general manager of the family business, Oland and Son Limited, and was responsible for convincing Maritime Cans to build their plant in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, which enabled Olands to become the first Canadian brewery to sell their products in aluminium cans. He resigned from the company in 1968 to become the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.

As with many of the Olands, Victor Oland was actively involved with a wide range of organizations. He was president of both the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the International Chamber of Commerce; vice-president and director of Canada Council; a member of the Canadian-American Committee; director of the Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition; vice-president of the Canadian Olympic Association; president of the Canadian Tourist Association; a member of the Board of Governors of Dalhousie University; and honorary consul-general of Japan in Halifax. He was also a member of the Corps of Commissionaires; a charter member of the Halifax Junior Board of Trade; president of the Halifax Board of Trade; chairman of the Halifax 1980 Committee (a planning group formed in 1960); and vice commodore of the Nova Scotia Schooner Association. He died in 1983.