John, called Jack by his family, was born in 1874, the youngest child of Dr. Henry and Laetitia Tuzo. John was born in Warlingham, England, after the family had already left Victoria. However, there is a record of John being present during a Tuzo family visit to Victoria in 1891. If the above calling card was left at Point Ellice House during this visit, it is very likely that John is the “Mr. Tuzo” referred to in the handwritten note on the bottom of the card, as Dr. Henry Tuzo had died in England a year earlier. John was educated as an engineer, and he was employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway to help design railways after he returned to Canada. He married his wife Annie Katherine Crawford in 1914. That same year, Annie accompanied John to Bangalore, India, where he was posted during World War I and where their son was born. John died in Tanzania while on active service in 1918. His widow Annie eventually returned to England to live with her mother-in-law.
List of Calling Cards
The Point Ellice House collection contains hundreds of calling cards left for the O’Reilly family by visitors. This initial research was conducted by Public History students at the University of Victoria, and these biographies constitute only a portion of the individuals represented by the calling cards within the collection.