Sir Joseph Wesley Flavelle, 1st Baronet (February 15, 1858 – March 7, 1939) was a Canadian businessman.

Sir Joseph Flavelle
Portrait of Flavelle, c. 1918
Born
Joseph Wesley Flavelle

(1858-02-15)February 15, 1858
DiedMarch 7, 1939(1939-03-07) (aged 81)
Resting placeMount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
OccupationBusinessman
SpouseClara Ellsworth
Holwood House in March 1907 (now known as Flavelle House)

Life and career

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Joseph Wesley Flavelle was born on February 15, 1858, in Peterbough, Canada West, to John and Dorothea (Dundas) Flavelle.[1] He married Clara Ellsworth in 1882. By the 1890s,[2] Flavelle had made his fortune in the meatpacking business as president of William Davies Company, which was the British Empire's largest pork packing firm. He subsequently became prominent in finance and commerce as chairman of the Bank of Commerce, National Trust and Simpson's department stores.

Flavelle was chairman of the Imperial Munitions Board during World War I, and it was for reorganizing the industry that he was awarded a baronetcy in 1917.[3] His was the last British hereditary title to be granted in the normal course to a Canadian citizen, due to the passage of the Nickle Resolution in 1919.

Flavelle died on March 7, 1939, in Palm Beach, Florida.[4] He left his Queen's Park mansion (Holwood House at 78 Queen's Park Crescent) to the University of Toronto. It is now called Flavelle House and forms part of the university's Faculty of Law. He was succeeded in the Flavelle baronetcy by his son, Ellsworth.

References

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  1. ^ Bliss, Michael (September 23, 2004). "Flavelle, Sir Joseph Wesley, first baronet". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/54917. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Klassen, Henry Cornelius (1977). The Canadian West : social change and economic development. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. p. 182.
  3. ^ "No. 30365". The London Gazette. November 2, 1917. p. 11358.
  4. ^ "Joseph Flavelle, Financier, 81, Dies". The New York Times. March 8, 1939. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 29, 2021.

Bibliography

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Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Toronto)
1917–1939
Succeeded by