Thomas Birkett was mayor of Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Canada

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...

 in 1891 and a member of the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 representing Ottawa City

Ottawa (City of)

Ottawa was a federal electoral district in the province of Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1935.It was created by the British North America Act of 1867. It consisted of the city of Ottawa...

 from 1900 to 1904.

He was born in Ottawa in 1844, the son of Miles Birkett and Elizabeth Wren, who came to Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

 from England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. At the age of 13, he became an apprentice to a local hardware store owner. In 1866, he opened his own hardware store. Birkett served on the school board from 1867 to 1871 and was an alderman on Ottawa City Council from 1873 to 1878. During his term as mayor, electric streetcars were introduced in Ottawa. In 1871, he married Mary Gallagher; after her death, he married Henrietta Gallagher, her stepsister, in 1904. Birkett also served as president of the advisory board of the Dominion Building and Loan Association at Ottawa. He was also a long-time member of the Masonic Order. In 1900, he was named a trustee for the Ottawa Collegiate Institute. He died in Ottawa of pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 in 1920. He is buried at Beechwood Cemetery

Beechwood Cemetery

Beechwood Cemetery is the National Cemetery of Canada. Because it is located in Ottawa, Ontario, the nation's capital, it is the burial site for a number of statesmen as well as a large number of mayors of the city. A woodland cemetery founded in 1873, it is 160 acres and is the largest cemetery...

.

His former home, nicknamed Birkett's Castle, is now used as the Hungarian Embassy.