Joseph Flavelle

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

Sir Joseph Flavelle, Bt
Sir Joseph Flavelle, c. 1918
Born	February 15, 1858 Peterborough, Canada West
Died	March 7, 1939 (aged 81) Palm Beach, Florida

Life and career

Born in Peterborough, Canada West, he married Clara Ellsworth in 1882. By the 1890s,[1] 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.[2] His was the last hereditary title to be granted in the normal course to a Canadian citizen, due to the passage of the Nickle Resolution in 1919.

Upon his death in 1939, Flavelle left his Queen's Park mansion (Holwood House) to the University of Toronto. It is now called Flavelle House and forms part of the Faculty of Law. He was succeeded in the Flavelle baronetcy by his son, Ellsworth.

References

1. Klassen, Henry Cornelius (1977). The Canadian West : social change and economic development. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. p. 182.
2. "No. 30365". The London Gazette. 2 November 1917. p. 11358.

Bibliography

• Michael Bliss (1992). A Canadian Millionaire: The Life and Business Times of Sir Joseph Flavelle, Bart., 1858-1939. University of Toronto Press.
• Brown, Robert Craig (2016). "Flavelle, Sir Joseph Wesley". In Cook, Ramsay; Bélanger, Réal (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. XVI (1931–1940) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
• Sir Joseph Wesley Flavelle at The Canadian Encyclopedia

External links

• Media related to Joseph Flavelle at Wikimedia Commons
• Sir Joseph Flavelle fonds at Queen's University Archives
• Joseph Flavelle at Find a Grave