Sir John Craig Eaton was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 businessman, and member of the prominent Eaton Family

Eaton family

The Eaton family of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, were owners of the Eaton's department stores, a national chain that was founded in 1869, and became bankrupt in 1999. At the family's height, their net worth was around $2 billion...

.

Sir John was the youngest son of Toronto department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 magnate Timothy Eaton

Timothy Eaton

Timothy Eaton was a Canadian businessman who founded the Eaton's department store, one of the most important retail businesses in Canada's history.-Early life and family:...

, and his wife, Margaret Wilson Beattie Eaton. John was born in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

. He married Flora McCrea in 1901 and they had six children: Timothy Craig; John David; Edgar Allison; Gilbert McCrea; Florence Mary; and Evlyn (adopted). Upon the death of his father in 1907, John inherited five million dollars and the T. Eaton Company. He became its president at this time, and the company flourished under his control.

John Craig built Ardwold

Ardwold

Ardwold was the residence of Sir John Craig Eaton and Lady Eaton of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Sir John was the youngest son of Timothy Eaton, the founder of the T. Eaton Company Department Store, or Eaton's, and he inherited the business and became its president upon his father's death in 1907...

, an enormous residence of 50 rooms in Toronto, beginning in 1909, and finished in 1911. He also acquired a resort home from his mother in Oakville, Ontario

Oakville, Ontario

Oakville is a town in Halton Region, on Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. As of the 2006 census the population was 165,613.-History:In 1793, Dundas Street was surveyed for a military road...

 called called Raymar Estate (the estate has since disappeared). He was made a Knight Bachelor

Knight Bachelor

The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...

 in 1915 in recognition of his participation in the war effort, and so became Sir John Craig Eaton, and his wife Flora, Lady Eaton

Flora Eaton

Flora McCrea Eaton, Lady Eaton was the wife of Toronto department store president and heir Sir John Craig Eaton.- Life and career :...

. Sir John greatly influenced the company, and expanded the stores nationally.

He was quite a philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

. Perhaps his most lavish public contribution was the gift, together with his mother, of land and funds for a large Methodist church on St Clair Avenue in Toronto. Named after Timothy Eaton

Timothy Eaton Memorial Church

Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, in Toronto, Canada, was erected at 230 St. Clair Avenue West in 1914 as a Methodist congregation, and named for department store founder Timothy Eaton....

, it was constructed in 1912–14.
The Eaton's also made many donations to Omemee, Ontario

Omemee, Ontario

Omemee is a community within the city of Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Canada, formerly known as Victoria County. Omemee is one of the major communities in the Kawartha Lakes, as the proclaimed "city" is vastly rural and has but one major population centre...

, the home town of his wife Flora. These donations included Coronation Hall (1911), and the manse,and organ for Trinity United Church.

He died of pneumonia in 1922, and his cousin Robert Younge Eaton became president until Sir John's son, John David Eaton

John David Eaton

For other people named John Eaton, see John Eaton ."John David Eaton was the second son of Sir John Craig Eaton and Lady Eaton of Toronto....

, reached an appropriate age to take over.