Edmund Billings

Edmund Billings (January 14, 1868 – February 7, 1929) was a Canadian born American financier, banker, sociologist, philanthropist, and government official who served on a number of relief committees and was Collector of Customs for the Port of Boston during World War I.

Billings was born in St. George, New Brunswick on January 14, 1868 to Edmund and Elizabeth (Sutherland) Billings. At the age of five his family moved to Boston. He was educated at the Brimmer School and Evening High School and took night classes at Harvard University. Billings worked as a messenger boy for Western Union and a clerk in an art store before beginning a career in charity work. On October 1, 1896 he married Elizabeth Child of Stamford, Connecticut. They had two children, Edmund, Jr. and Katherine.

At the age of twenty-one, Billings was appointed superintendent of the Wells Memorial Institute. He later served as its treasurer. Upon the death of its founder, Robert Treat Paine in 1910, Billings became president of the Institute. He held this position until he left the Institute in 1922. He also served as the superintendent of the People's Institute.

Billings was a member of relief committees that aided the victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Great Chelsea Fire of 1908, Great Salem Fire of 1914, the 1908 Messina earthquake, and the Halifax Explosion. During World War I, Billings served as a member of the emergency committee of the American Red Cross' Boston chapter. For his work after the Messina earthquake he received an audience with King Victor Emmanuel III, was awarded a medal by the Italian Government, and had the first street built in Messina after the earthquake named in his honor. Upon his return he was awarded a medal by Italian Americans in Boston.

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