William Mulock
Encyclopedia
Sir William Mulock, PC
, KCMG, MP
, QC
, LL.D (January 19, 1843 – October 1, 1944) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, educator, farmer, politician, judge, and philanthropist.
He served as vice-chancellor of the University of Toronto
from 1881 to 1900, negotiating the federation of denominational colleges and professional schools into a modern university.
He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons
as a Liberal
Member of Parliament and served from 1882 to 1905. Sir Wilfrid Laurier
appointed him to the Canadian Cabinet as Postmaster General
from 1896 to 1905. In 1900, Mulock established the Department of Labour, bringing William Lyon Mackenzie King
into public life as his Deputy Minister.
He initiated the final agreement for a transpacific cable linking Canada to Australia and New Zealand, and funded Marconi
to establish the first transatlantic radio link from North America to Europe. In 1905 he chaired the parliamentary inquiry into telephones that led to regulation of Canadian telecommunications, and he participated in the negotiations that led to the creation of the provinces of Alberta
and Saskatchewan
.
He was Chief Justice of the Exchequer Division of the Supreme Court of Ontario from 1905 until appointed by King in 1923 as Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of Ontario
, a position he held until 1936. From 1931 to 1932, he served as the acting Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
Mulock was extremely active in both business and the community, being involved in the foundation of organizations as diverse as the Toronto-Dominion Bank, the Toronto Star, Toronto Wellesley Hospital, and Canada's first national peace organization. In later life he was known as the "Grand Old Man" of Canada.
, Canada West, the son of Irish immigrant Thomas Homan Mulock and Mary, the daughter of John Cawthra
. His father, a physician educated in Dublin at the Royal College of Surgeons
and the Medical School of Trinity College
, died when Mulock was 4 years old. His mother then moved the family to Newmarket, Ontario
, where he was educated at the Newmarket Grammar School
. Mulock's older brother, John, died in 1852; he had two sisters Marian and Rosamund (later married to George W. Monk
). The family endured gentile poverty after the father's death, so Mulock spent much time chopping wood, milking the family cow, growing vegetables in the family garden, and on outside work such as repairing the local corduroy road
s.
Mulock entered the new University College
in Toronto in 1859; his classmates included J.M. Gibson
, W.D. Lesueur
, and W.B. McMurrich
. On November 9, 1861, Mulock captained one of the teams in the first gridiron football
game ever recorded.
During the Trent Affair
of 1862, Mulock asked the head of the college John McCaul
to call a student meeting that led to the formation of the University Company of volunteers, later K Company of the Queen's Own Rifles
. At the time of the Fenian Raids
in 1866, Mulock received training at the Royal Military School and was enlisted in the regiment for three weeks, but never saw action.
Starting at the same time that Mulock arrived, Egerton Ryerson
led a sustained attack on the University over money and the proper purpose of a university education. Ryerson did not think that modern languages or history, practical courses, nor even Law or Medicine belonged in a university, and a Royal Commission was struck which recommended that the endowment of the University be distributed among all Ontario colleges. The defence of the university culminated in a large meeting at the St. Lawrence Hall
on March 5, 1863, where Mulock moved the concluding motion. These efforts allowed the University to "escape extinction", according to Sir Daniel Wilson.
After graduating in 1863 with the Gold Medal for Modern Languages, Mulock became a law student, first articled to Alfred Boultbee
in Newmarket, and then in Toronto, eventually in the firm of Senator John Ross
. To support himself, Mulock became a house-master at Upper Canada College
. Mulock was called to the bar in 1868.
, Thomas Moss, and James Loudon
led the struggle to broaden the University of Toronto Senate to include elected members. As a result, Ontario Minister of Education Adam Crooks passed legislation in 1873 that added 15 new senators elected by the alumni. Mulock was elected and remained a member for 71 years. Mulock moved and passed the first requirement that University finances be reported to the senate and made public. Largely due to the efforts of Mulock and Loudon, in 1876 a School of Science was established and in 1878 an independent School of Practical Science (which joined the university in 1889 as the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering
).
In 1873 the Law Society of Upper Canada
established a Law School, and Mulock soon became Lecturer and Examiner in Equity. After the school closed in 1878, the Osgoode Literary and Legal Society attempted to provide replacement instruction, with Mulock lecturing on Partnership. When Mulock became Vice-Chancellor, one of his goals was to establish the best Law Faculty on the continent.
colleges and small independent professional schools. Mulock believed that a single federated university would be more efficient, less expensive, and provide better educational opportunities to students, especially in sciences and the professions. He negotiated around resistance from many quarters, leading to the Federation Act in 1887 and affiliation (and later federation) with St. Michael's College
in 1881, Wycliffe College
and Knox College
in 1885, the Ontario College of Agriculture
and the Royal College of Dental Surgeons
in 1888, Victoria College
, the Ontario Medical College for Women and the Toronto College of Music
in 1890, the College of Pharmacy in 1891, the Toronto Conservatory of Music in 1896, and the Ontario Veterinary College
in 1897. In opposition to followers of John Rolph who believed medical education should be paid for by students since they would soon have a good income treating patients, Mulock thought it better to reduce disease by spending public money to train doctors. The Federation Act established new faculties of Medicine and Law
. Mulock efforts were not popular with everyone, but he survived several attempts to remove him from office, resigning in 1900 because of his increased political responsibilities. As part of his internecine battles, Mulock secretly aided William Lyon Mackenzie King
and other student leaders of the February 1895 student strike.
In June 1893, Mulock provided the articling position needed by pioneering student-at-law Clara Brett Martin
. Martin was so badly treated by her fellow male students that she eventually switched to another firm, but in 1897 she became the first female lawyer in the British Empire.
In 1897, Mulock hired surgeon Herbert Bruce
into the Faculty of Medicine without consultation. Mulock later helped finance Bruce's new Wellesley Hospital
and was the first Chair of its Board of Directors.
The University awarded Mulock an Honourary Doctorate of Laws in 1894.
While Vice-Chancellor, Mulock accepted no salary, and the money accumulated was donated to the university.
In 1906, the elected office of Vice-Chancellor was abolished; the unelected President of the University took over as Chair of the Senate. Mulock later spoke out against this "reactionary step", especially since the Act also "put the elected members of the senate in a hopeless minority" and reduced the senate's responsibilities to academic matters only.
's death in 1923, Mulock was nominated for the primarily ceremonial role of Chancellor. Mulock was supported by most elected representatives, but opposed by most professors. The senate elected Sir Edmund Walker
, but Walker died shortly thereafter. Mulock was subsequently elected unanimously as Chancellor on April 28, 1924 and served until his death.
Mulock's proudest achievements were his contributions to the University of Toronto. His memorials at the university include the Mulock Cup, Canada's oldest continuously awarded sporting trophy, the William Mulock Prize in Mathematics and Physics, the William Mulock Prize in Classics, and Mulock House in Whitney Hall residence.
nomination in the then strongly Conservative federal riding of York North
. The winning nominee, Dr. John Widderfield
, later withdrew and was replaced by Mulock, who then unexpectedly defeated the Conservative incumbent in the 1882 election
. Mulock remained in Opposition
through two subsequent elections until 1896 when the Liberals under Wilfrid Laurier
took power. In order to provide "clean government", Mulock raised sufficient funds that year to provide Laurier with financial independence.
He inherited an inefficient bureaucracy that was losing almost a million dollars a year, but he believed that improved service and lower prices would increase revenue and better connect Canada and the British Empire
. He campaigned for lower rates throughout the Empire, and when met by resistance decided to go it alone, announcing that at the end of 1897 Canada would unilaterally lower the letter rate to Britain from five to three cents. In response, a conference of all British Empire postal authorities was called for the summer of 1898. Over the objections of the Australian colonies and New Zealand, Mulock succeeded in implementing an Imperial Penny Post. Mulock also took advantage of this meeting to negotiate the final financial agreement for the transpacific cable first proposed by Sir Sandford Fleming
to link Canada to Australia and New Zealand. The cable was completed on October 31, 1902, finishing the All Red Line
. By 1903, the Post Office was generating a surplus of almost a million dollars a year.
To mark the start of the Imperial Penny Post, Mulock personally designed and issued a new stamp with a map of the world showing the extent of the British Empire. Partly by accident, this became the world's first Christmas stamp
.
On April 1, 1898, Mulock introduced an amendment to the Post Office Act that made Canada the first country in the world to give Franking
privileges, i.e. free postage, for Braille
materials and books for the blind. He also initiated a program to provide Post Office employment for the deaf.
After the first successful transatlantic radio communication in 1901 to his station at Signal Hill, Newfoundland, Guglielmo Marconi
learned that the Anglo-American Cable Company had a monopoly on transatlantic telegraphy from Newfoundland, so he planned to move to a new location in the United States. When Mulock learned this, he immediately negotiated an agreement with Marconi for him to set up his North American radio station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
, where the first transatlantic message from North America was sent on December 17, 1902.
Mulock was Canada's representative at the opening of Australia's first Parliament in 1901, and was one of Canadian representatives at the coronation of King Edward VII
. Mulock was knighted in 1902 for his services, in particular for the Penny Post, Transpacific Cable, and wireless telegraphy between Canada and Great Britain.
In order to protect the public against Quackery
Mulock amended the Post Office in 1904 to curtail advertising of "marvellous, extravagant or grossly improbable cures". Mulock was also active in the negotiations that led to the formation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905.
In 1905, Mulock chaired the select parliamentary inquiry into telephone systems, especially the unregulated Bell Telephone
monopoly.
The committee shed much light on the operations and finances of Bell, but Mulock was replaced when it became apparent that he was likely to recommend the telephone service be a government owned utility. The committee's work nevertheless led in 1906 to the first federal regulation of telephone and telegram service by the Board of Railway Commissioners, the ancestor of the current Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Despite being a wealthy businessman and fervent anticommunist, Mulock believed that government operation of public franchises provided better service at lower cost, with greater protection of personal privacy and public interest.
Mulock was probably the best administrator in the Laurier Cabinet, but he did not always consider the political consequences of his actions. Without consulting Laurier, he fired the influential journalist Arthur Dansereau as Montreal's Postmaster. Mulock had ample cause, but Laurier immediately ordered Dansereau reinstated, straining Laurier's relationship with Mulock.
Mulock once let politics try to overrule physics. He proposed the Newmarket Canal
to the centre of his Riding
to help local industry, despite engineering reports that that natural water flow would leave the canal dry for much of the year. "Mulock's Madness" was cancelled when Robert Borden
became Prime Minister in 1911, but its partially completed remains are still prominent.
s. He immediately revised Post Office contracting policy so that all uniforms would be produced under Government approved conditions. In 1900, Mulock introduced "The Fair Wages Resolution" governing all Canadian government contracting, and an Act that created the Department of Labour and the Labour Gazette (one of the ancestors of Statistics Canada
). Mulock became Canada's first Minister of Labour in addition to his Post Office responsibilities. In response to an urgent telegram from Mulock, Mackenzie King turned down a better paid academic position at Harvard
to become Editor of the Labour Gazette and subsequently the first Deputy Minister of Labour. King eventually became Canada's longest serving Prime Minister, and remained friends with Mulock for the rest of his life. In 1903 Mulock introduced compulsory arbitration
to Canada through the Railway Disputes Act.
Mulock retired from politics in 1905 due to rheumatism
and neuritis exacerbated by overwork, but the movement of his political views to the left may also have contributed to his decision.
's first trial in 1929.
On February 28, 1930, a Ku Klux Klan
mob invaded the home of a mixed race couple in Oakville, Ontario
. Several men were eventually convicted, but given only a small fine. On appeal, Mulock described the fine as a "travesty of justice", and replaced it with a three-month prison term. Mulock reported himself as an ardent abolitionist in his youth, and as a politician he actively campaigned in black communities, but in his ruling Mulock denounced only mob law, not the underlying racial issues. This ruling marked the start of a significant decline in Klan activity in Canada.
In 1931, Tim Buck
and seven other members of the Communist Party of Canada
were convicted of seditious conspiracy and membership in an unlawful organization. The strongly anticommunist Mulock presided over the appeal of the convictions in 1932, and despite dismissing the conspiracy charge, upheld the other convictions and his lengthy written decision established the Communist Party as an unlawful organization, effectively banning it.
By modern standards, Mulock's judgements were not always free of apparent bias or conflicts of interest. In the long and very public case of "Campbell v Hogg", he was close to all participants, and Elizabeth Campbell was so unhappy with his court's judgement that to overturn it she became the first woman to argue a case before the Privy Council
.
in Newmarket. On almost 400 acres Mulock established a manorial estate and model farm, known for its flowers, black walnut grove, apple orchard, and prize shorthorn cattle and shetland ponies. In political life, Mulock was often referred to as "Farmer Bill". The farm was used to try out new methods and crops, and provided agricultural and leadership training for many students from the Ontario College of Agriculture
. In 1926, Mulock purchased a second farm in Markdale, Ontario
for trout fishing and reforestation.
), the American Bank Note Company
, and Sun Life
. He was President of the Victoria Rolling Stock Company and the Farmers' Loan and Savings Co., and had real estate interests. In 1911, Mulock, Sir Henry Pellatt, and Charles Miller
took control of O'Keefe Brewing
, a brand now owned by Molson Coors Brewing Company
.
Mulock was one of the founders of The Dominion Bank
,
which opened for business in 1871 and in 1955 merged with the Bank of Toronto
to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank
, currently Canada's second largest bank. He was also one of the founders (1882) and Directors of Toronto General Trust, Canada's first trust company and an ancestor of TD Canada Trust
.
In 1899, as chief Liberal Party organizer in Ontario, Mulock wanted a Liberal paper to counterbalance the Conservative Toronto Telegram
. He led a group that purchased the ailing Toronto Star
and offered Joseph Atkinson
the position as editor. Atkinson accepted on the condition that he have editorial independence and that part of his pay would be in shares. Mulock unhappily agreed, and Mulock and Atkinson clashed for the rest of their lives. It gave Atkinson great pleasure at the 1913 annual shareholders meeting to interrupt Mulock in mid-tirade to announce that he was now the majority shareholder and would do what he chose.
), St. John Ambulance
, the Working Boys Home, and the Soldiers Rehabilitation Fund.
Cardinal McQuigan credited Mulock with helping Catholics fully participate in the civic life of Ontario.
In 1925, Mulock was the leading organizer of the Banting Research Foundation, Canada's first medical research foundation.
Despite playing a key role in forcing Laurier to commit Canadian forces in the Boer War
, after his retirement from politics, Mulock spoke out against militarism. Mulock became the first president of Canada's first national, secular peace organization, the Canadian Peace and Arbitration Society, founded in 1905. When Britain entered World War I
, Mulock immediately started organizing the Toronto and York County Patriotic Fund (later part of the Canadian Patriotic Fund
) to assist soldier's families. Mulock was President of the Toronto and York Fund for its entire existence (and chair of the Canadian executive); the Toronto fund raised $8,939,143, with only about 2% spent on expenses. At age 99 during World War II
, he served as Chair of the Canadian Committee of the International YMCA
, responsible for supervising enemy prisoners in Canada. He considered information from Canadian prison camp officials to be hearsay
that could not replace direct inspection.
Mulock's grandson William Pate Mulock
was also a MP for York North
.
Mulock's use of profanity was said to be the most picturesque in parliament, and he was known for his consumption of Cuban cigars and rye whiskey. Just before Prohibition
came into force in Ontario in 1916, he had special concrete compartments built in his house into which he stored a lifetime supply of whiskey.
Mulock was described as "The man who did", his work ethic recognized even by those who sometimes disagreed with what he did. Sir Daniel Wilson referred to him as "the mule". At a luncheon in his honour shortly after his 87th birthday, Mulock described his attitude on growing old:
Mulock is buried in Newmarket Cemetery. The Sir William Mulock Secondary School
, Mulock Drive in Newmarket, Ontario
, and Mulock Island in Algoma District, Ontario
are named in his honour.
Queen's Privy Council for Canada
The Queen's Privy Council for Canada ), sometimes called Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council, is the full group of personal consultants to the monarch of Canada on state and constitutional affairs, though responsible government requires the sovereign or her viceroy,...
, KCMG, MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
, LL.D (January 19, 1843 – October 1, 1944) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, educator, farmer, politician, judge, and philanthropist.
He served as vice-chancellor of the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
from 1881 to 1900, negotiating the federation of denominational colleges and professional schools into a modern university.
He was elected to 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...
as a Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
Member of Parliament and served from 1882 to 1905. Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, GCMG, PC, KC, baptized Henri-Charles-Wilfrid Laurier was the seventh Prime Minister of Canada from 11 July 1896 to 6 October 1911....
appointed him to the Canadian Cabinet as Postmaster General
Postmaster General of Canada
The Postmaster General of Canada was the Canadian cabinet minister responsible for the Post Office Department . In 1851, management of the post office was transferred from Britain to the provincial governments of the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward...
from 1896 to 1905. In 1900, Mulock established the Department of Labour, bringing William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
into public life as his Deputy Minister.
He initiated the final agreement for a transpacific cable linking Canada to Australia and New Zealand, and funded Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
to establish the first transatlantic radio link from North America to Europe. In 1905 he chaired the parliamentary inquiry into telephones that led to regulation of Canadian telecommunications, and he participated in the negotiations that led to the creation of the provinces of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
.
He was Chief Justice of the Exchequer Division of the Supreme Court of Ontario from 1905 until appointed by King in 1923 as Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
of the Supreme Court of Ontario
Supreme Court of Ontario
The Supreme Court of Ontario was a superior court of the Canadian province of Ontario. Now defunct, in 1989 the Courts of Justice Amendment Act, 1989 was enacted by the Government to create one large superior trial court for Ontario...
, a position he held until 1936. From 1931 to 1932, he served as the acting Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
Mulock was extremely active in both business and the community, being involved in the foundation of organizations as diverse as the Toronto-Dominion Bank, the Toronto Star, Toronto Wellesley Hospital, and Canada's first national peace organization. In later life he was known as the "Grand Old Man" of Canada.
Early life
Mulock was born in Bond HeadBradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario
Bradford West Gwillimbury, a town in south-central Ontario, in the County of Simcoe in the Greater Toronto Area on the Holland River. West Gwillimbury takes its name from the family of Elizabeth Simcoe, née Gwillim....
, Canada West, the son of Irish immigrant Thomas Homan Mulock and Mary, the daughter of John Cawthra
John Cawthra
John Cawthra was a merchant, distiller and political figure in Upper Canada. He represented Simcoe from 1828 to 1830 in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada as a Reformer....
. His father, a physician educated in Dublin at the Royal College of Surgeons
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland , is a Dublin-based medical institution, situated on St. Stephen's Green. The college is one of the five Recognised Colleges of the National University of Ireland...
and the Medical School of Trinity College
School of Medicine (Trinity College, Dublin)
The School of Medicine at the University of Dublin, Trinity College in Dublin, Republic of Ireland , is the oldest medical school in Ireland. Founded in the early eighteenth century, it was originally situated at the site of the current Berkeley Library...
, died when Mulock was 4 years old. His mother then moved the family to Newmarket, Ontario
Newmarket, Ontario
Newmarket is a town in Southern Ontario located approximately 50 km north of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area and is connected to Toronto by freeway, and is served by three interchanges along Highway 404. It is also connected to Highway 400 via Highway 9...
, where he was educated at the Newmarket Grammar School
Newmarket High School
Newmarket High School is an Ontario secondary school located at 505 Pickering Crescent, off Mulock Drive in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. It is one of four high schools in Newmarket under the jurisdiction of the York Region District School Board and currently educates approximately 1214 students from...
. Mulock's older brother, John, died in 1852; he had two sisters Marian and Rosamund (later married to George W. Monk
George William Monk
George Monk was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.He was born in March Township, Ontario in 1838. He was educated in Bytown and Potsdam, New York....
). The family endured gentile poverty after the father's death, so Mulock spent much time chopping wood, milking the family cow, growing vegetables in the family garden, and on outside work such as repairing the local corduroy road
Corduroy road
A corduroy road or log road is a type of road made by placing sand-covered logs perpendicular to the direction of the road over a low or swampy area....
s.
Student
University College, University of Toronto
University College is a constituent college of the University of Toronto, created in 1853 specifically as an institution of higher learning free of religious affiliation. It was the founding member of the university's modern collegiate system, and its secularism contrasted with contemporary...
in Toronto in 1859; his classmates included J.M. Gibson
John Morison Gibson
Sir John Morison Gibson, KCMG, KC was a Canadian politician and the tenth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario....
, W.D. Lesueur
William Dawson LeSueur
William Dawson LeSueur was a Canadian civil servant and author.Born in Quebec City, the son of Peter LeSueur and Barbara Dawson, LeSueur studied Latin and Greek at the High School of Montreal. In 1856, he joined the provincial Post Office Department after moving to Toronto...
, and W.B. McMurrich
William Barclay McMurrich
William Barclay McMurrich was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was the mayor of Toronto from 1881 to 1882....
. On November 9, 1861, Mulock captained one of the teams in the first gridiron football
Gridiron football
Gridiron football , sometimes known as North American football, is an umbrella term for related codes of football primarily played in the United States and Canada. The predominant forms of gridiron football are American football and Canadian football...
game ever recorded.
During the Trent Affair
Trent affair
The Trent Affair, also known as the Mason and Slidell Affair, was an international diplomatic incident that occurred during the American Civil War...
of 1862, Mulock asked the head of the college John McCaul
John McCaul
John McCaul was an Irish-born Canadian educator, theologian, and the second president of the University of Toronto from 1848 to 1853....
to call a student meeting that led to the formation of the University Company of volunteers, later K Company of the Queen's Own Rifles
The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada
The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada is a militia regiment within the Canadian Forces, based in Toronto, Ontario. The regiment is part of Land Force Central Area's 32 Canadian Brigade Group. It is the only Primary Reserve regiment in Canada to have a parachute role. The regiment consists of the reserve...
. At the time of the Fenian Raids
Fenian raids
Between 1866 and 1871, the Fenian raids of the Fenian Brotherhood who were based in the United States; on British army forts, customs posts and other targets in Canada, were fought to bring pressure on Britain to withdraw from Ireland. They divided many Catholic Irish-Canadians, many of whom were...
in 1866, Mulock received training at the Royal Military School and was enlisted in the regiment for three weeks, but never saw action.
Starting at the same time that Mulock arrived, Egerton Ryerson
Egerton Ryerson
Adolphus Egerton Ryerson was a Methodist minister, educator, politician, and public education advocate in early Ontario, Canada...
led a sustained attack on the University over money and the proper purpose of a university education. Ryerson did not think that modern languages or history, practical courses, nor even Law or Medicine belonged in a university, and a Royal Commission was struck which recommended that the endowment of the University be distributed among all Ontario colleges. The defence of the university culminated in a large meeting at the St. Lawrence Hall
St. Lawrence Hall
St. Lawrence Hall is a meeting hall in Toronto, Canada next to the St. Lawrence Market. It was built, alongside the new city hall, in 1850 after an 1849 fire destroyed much of the market. The Renaissance Revival style building was designed by William Thomas. It was created to be Toronto's public...
on March 5, 1863, where Mulock moved the concluding motion. These efforts allowed the University to "escape extinction", according to Sir Daniel Wilson.
After graduating in 1863 with the Gold Medal for Modern Languages, Mulock became a law student, first articled to Alfred Boultbee
Alfred Boultbee
Alfred Boultbee was an Ontario lawyer and political figure. He represented York North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1871 to 1874 and York East in the Canadian House of Commons as a Conservative member from 1879 to 1882.He was born in Hampshire, England in 1829 and came to Ancaster...
in Newmarket, and then in Toronto, eventually in the firm of Senator John Ross
John Ross (Canadian politician)
John Ross was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and businessman.Born in County Antrim, Ireland, he was brought to Canada as an infant. Ross married twice, first to Margaret Crawford who died in 1847, secondly to Augusta Elizabeth Baldwin 4 February 1851, the daughter of Robert Baldwin...
. To support himself, Mulock became a house-master at Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College , located in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is an independent elementary and secondary school for boys between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The secondary school segment is divided into ten houses; eight are...
. Mulock was called to the bar in 1868.
University Senator (1873–1944)
After graduating, Mulock, Edward BlakeEdward Blake
Dominick Edward Blake, PC, QC , known as Edward Blake, was the second Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1871 to 1872 and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1880 to 1887...
, Thomas Moss, and James Loudon
James Loudon
James Loudon, F.R.S.C was a Canadian professor of physics and President of the University of Toronto from 1892–1906.-References:* at The Canadian Encyclopedia*...
led the struggle to broaden the University of Toronto Senate to include elected members. As a result, Ontario Minister of Education Adam Crooks passed legislation in 1873 that added 15 new senators elected by the alumni. Mulock was elected and remained a member for 71 years. Mulock moved and passed the first requirement that University finances be reported to the senate and made public. Largely due to the efforts of Mulock and Loudon, in 1876 a School of Science was established and in 1878 an independent School of Practical Science (which joined the university in 1889 as the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering
University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering
The Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering is an academic division of the University of Toronto devoted to study and research in engineering. Founded in 1873 as the School of Practical Science, it is still known today by the longtime nickname of Skule...
).
In 1873 the Law Society of Upper Canada
Law Society of Upper Canada
The Law Society of Upper Canada is responsible for the self-regulation of lawyers and paralegals in the Canadian province of Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1797, it is known in French as "Le Barreau du Haut-Canada"...
established a Law School, and Mulock soon became Lecturer and Examiner in Equity. After the school closed in 1878, the Osgoode Literary and Legal Society attempted to provide replacement instruction, with Mulock lecturing on Partnership. When Mulock became Vice-Chancellor, one of his goals was to establish the best Law Faculty on the continent.
Vice-Chancellor (1881–1900)
Mulock was elected Vice-Chancellor in 1881. The University of Toronto then consisted of two small buildings, and the rest of higher education in Ontario was distributed among a variety of denominationalReligious denomination
A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity.The term describes various Christian denominations...
colleges and small independent professional schools. Mulock believed that a single federated university would be more efficient, less expensive, and provide better educational opportunities to students, especially in sciences and the professions. He negotiated around resistance from many quarters, leading to the Federation Act in 1887 and affiliation (and later federation) with St. Michael's College
University of St. Michael's College
The University of St. Michael's College is a college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1852 by the Congregation of St. Basil of Annonay, France. While mainly an undergraduate college for liberal arts and sciences, St. Michael's retains its Roman Catholic affiliation through its postgraduate...
in 1881, Wycliffe College
Wycliffe College
Wycliffe College is an Anglican Church of Canada seminary federated with the University of Toronto. It is evangelical and Low church in orientation. On the other hand, the University of Toronto's other Anglican college, the University of Trinity College is Anglo-Catholic in outlook. While being an...
and Knox College
Knox College, University of Toronto
Knox College is a postgraduate theological college of the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1844 as part of a schism movement in the Church of Scotland following the Disruption...
in 1885, the Ontario College of Agriculture
Ontario Agricultural College
The Ontario Agricultural College originated at the agricultural laboratories of the Toronto Normal School, and was officially founded in 1874 as an associate agricultural college of the University of Toronto...
and the Royal College of Dental Surgeons
Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario
-The Organization:The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario, more commonly known as RCDSO, was established on March 4th, 1868 by Ontario Statute...
in 1888, Victoria College
Victoria University in the University of Toronto
Victoria University is a constituent college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1836 and named for Queen Victoria. It is commonly called Victoria College, informally Vic, after the original academic component that now forms its undergraduate division...
, the Ontario Medical College for Women and the Toronto College of Music
Toronto College of Music
The Toronto College of Music was a Canadian music conservatory in Toronto, Ontario that was actively providing higher education in music during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Founded in 1888 by conductor F.H. Torrington, the college was notably the first music conservatory affiliated...
in 1890, the College of Pharmacy in 1891, the Toronto Conservatory of Music in 1896, and the Ontario Veterinary College
Ontario Veterinary College
The Ontario Veterinary College is the oldest and one of the most well known veterinary school in Canada and North America. It is located on the campus of the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario...
in 1897. In opposition to followers of John Rolph who believed medical education should be paid for by students since they would soon have a good income treating patients, Mulock thought it better to reduce disease by spending public money to train doctors. The Federation Act established new faculties of Medicine and Law
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Established in 1887, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law is one of the oldest professional faculties at the University of Toronto. The Faculty of Law is particularly renowned in the areas of corporate law, international law, law and economics, and legal theory.The law school has been...
. Mulock efforts were not popular with everyone, but he survived several attempts to remove him from office, resigning in 1900 because of his increased political responsibilities. As part of his internecine battles, Mulock secretly aided William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
and other student leaders of the February 1895 student strike.
In June 1893, Mulock provided the articling position needed by pioneering student-at-law Clara Brett Martin
Clara Brett Martin
Clara Brett Martin , born to Abram and Elizabeth Martin, a well-to-do Anglican-Irish family, opened the way for women to become lawyers in Canada by being the first in the British Empire in 1897....
. Martin was so badly treated by her fellow male students that she eventually switched to another firm, but in 1897 she became the first female lawyer in the British Empire.
In 1897, Mulock hired surgeon Herbert Bruce
Herbert Alexander Bruce
Herbert Alexander Bruce , served as the 15th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Canada, from 1932 to 1937....
into the Faculty of Medicine without consultation. Mulock later helped finance Bruce's new Wellesley Hospital
Wellesley Hospital
The Wellesley Hospital was a teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada affiliated with the University of Toronto. It was founded by Dr. Herbert Bruce as a private hospital, but became publicly operated in 1942....
and was the first Chair of its Board of Directors.
The University awarded Mulock an Honourary Doctorate of Laws in 1894.
While Vice-Chancellor, Mulock accepted no salary, and the money accumulated was donated to the university.
In 1906, the elected office of Vice-Chancellor was abolished; the unelected President of the University took over as Chair of the Senate. Mulock later spoke out against this "reactionary step", especially since the Act also "put the elected members of the senate in a hopeless minority" and reduced the senate's responsibilities to academic matters only.
Chancellor (1924–1944)
After Sir William MeredithWilliam Ralph Meredith
The Hon. Sir William Ralph Meredith, Q.C., LL.D. was Leader of the Ontario Conservatives from 1878 to 1894; Chancellor of the University of Toronto from 1900 until his death, and Chief Justice of Ontario from 1913 until his death...
's death in 1923, Mulock was nominated for the primarily ceremonial role of Chancellor. Mulock was supported by most elected representatives, but opposed by most professors. The senate elected Sir Edmund Walker
Byron Edmund Walker
Sir Byron Edmund Walker, CVO was a Canadian banker. He was the president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce from 1907 to 1924, and a generous patron of the arts, helping to found and nurture many of Canada's cultural and educational institutions, including the University of Toronto, National Gallery...
, but Walker died shortly thereafter. Mulock was subsequently elected unanimously as Chancellor on April 28, 1924 and served until his death.
Mulock's proudest achievements were his contributions to the University of Toronto. His memorials at the university include the Mulock Cup, Canada's oldest continuously awarded sporting trophy, the William Mulock Prize in Mathematics and Physics, the William Mulock Prize in Classics, and Mulock House in Whitney Hall residence.
Politics & Law
Mulock entered politics in 1881, unsuccessfully seeking the LiberalLiberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
nomination in the then strongly Conservative federal riding of York North
York North
York North was an electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from Confederation in 1867 until 2004. It is also an electoral district that was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1867 to 2007...
. The winning nominee, Dr. John Widderfield
John Wesley Widdifield
John Wesley Widdifield was an Ontario political figure. He represented Ontario North as a United Farmers of Ontario member from 1914 to 1929....
, later withdrew and was replaced by Mulock, who then unexpectedly defeated the Conservative incumbent in the 1882 election
Canadian federal election, 1882
The Canadian federal election of 1882 was held on June 20, 1882 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 5th Parliament of Canada.Prime Minister Sir John A...
. Mulock remained in Opposition
Official Opposition (Canada)
In Canada, Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition , commonly known as the Official Opposition, is usually the largest parliamentary opposition party in the House of Commons or a provincial legislative assembly that is not in government, either on its own or as part of a governing coalition...
through two subsequent elections until 1896 when the Liberals under Wilfrid Laurier
Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, GCMG, PC, KC, baptized Henri-Charles-Wilfrid Laurier was the seventh Prime Minister of Canada from 11 July 1896 to 6 October 1911....
took power. In order to provide "clean government", Mulock raised sufficient funds that year to provide Laurier with financial independence.
Postmaster General (1896–1905)
Laurier appointed Mulock as Postmaster General.He inherited an inefficient bureaucracy that was losing almost a million dollars a year, but he believed that improved service and lower prices would increase revenue and better connect Canada and the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. He campaigned for lower rates throughout the Empire, and when met by resistance decided to go it alone, announcing that at the end of 1897 Canada would unilaterally lower the letter rate to Britain from five to three cents. In response, a conference of all British Empire postal authorities was called for the summer of 1898. Over the objections of the Australian colonies and New Zealand, Mulock succeeded in implementing an Imperial Penny Post. Mulock also took advantage of this meeting to negotiate the final financial agreement for the transpacific cable first proposed by Sir Sandford Fleming
Sandford Fleming
Sir Sandford Fleming, was a Scottish-born Canadian engineer and inventor, proposed worldwide standard time zones, designed Canada's first postage stamp, a huge body of surveying and map making, engineering much of the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding...
to link Canada to Australia and New Zealand. The cable was completed on October 31, 1902, finishing the All Red Line
All Red Line
The All Red Line was an informal name for the system of electrical telegraphs that linked much of the British Empire.It was inaugurated on 31 October 1902. It had this name because on many political maps, British Empire territory was coloured red ....
. By 1903, the Post Office was generating a surplus of almost a million dollars a year.
Christmas stamp
Many nations of the world issue Christmas stamps, postage stamps with a Christmas theme and intended for use on seasonal mail such as Christmas cards. These stamps are regular postage stamps, unlike Christmas seals, and are usually valid for postage year-round...
.
On April 1, 1898, Mulock introduced an amendment to the Post Office Act that made Canada the first country in the world to give Franking
Franking
Franking are any and all devices or markings such as postage stamps , printed or stamped impressions, codings, labels, manuscript writings , and/or any other authorized form of markings affixed or applied to mails to qualify them to be postally serviced.-Franking types and...
privileges, i.e. free postage, for Braille
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
materials and books for the blind. He also initiated a program to provide Post Office employment for the deaf.
After the first successful transatlantic radio communication in 1901 to his station at Signal Hill, Newfoundland, Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
learned that the Anglo-American Cable Company had a monopoly on transatlantic telegraphy from Newfoundland, so he planned to move to a new location in the United States. When Mulock learned this, he immediately negotiated an agreement with Marconi for him to set up his North American radio station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
Glace Bay is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton....
, where the first transatlantic message from North America was sent on December 17, 1902.
Mulock was Canada's representative at the opening of Australia's first Parliament in 1901, and was one of Canadian representatives at the coronation of King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
. Mulock was knighted in 1902 for his services, in particular for the Penny Post, Transpacific Cable, and wireless telegraphy between Canada and Great Britain.
In order to protect the public against Quackery
Quackery
Quackery is a derogatory term used to describe the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices. Random House Dictionary describes a "quack" as a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or...
Mulock amended the Post Office in 1904 to curtail advertising of "marvellous, extravagant or grossly improbable cures". Mulock was also active in the negotiations that led to the formation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905.
In 1905, Mulock chaired the select parliamentary inquiry into telephone systems, especially the unregulated Bell Telephone
Bell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
monopoly.
The committee shed much light on the operations and finances of Bell, but Mulock was replaced when it became apparent that he was likely to recommend the telephone service be a government owned utility. The committee's work nevertheless led in 1906 to the first federal regulation of telephone and telegram service by the Board of Railway Commissioners, the ancestor of the current Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Despite being a wealthy businessman and fervent anticommunist, Mulock believed that government operation of public franchises provided better service at lower cost, with greater protection of personal privacy and public interest.
Mulock was probably the best administrator in the Laurier Cabinet, but he did not always consider the political consequences of his actions. Without consulting Laurier, he fired the influential journalist Arthur Dansereau as Montreal's Postmaster. Mulock had ample cause, but Laurier immediately ordered Dansereau reinstated, straining Laurier's relationship with Mulock.
Mulock once let politics try to overrule physics. He proposed the Newmarket Canal
Newmarket Canal
The Newmarket Canal is an abandoned canal project in Newmarket, Ontario.The idea for a canal linking to Lake Simcoe and the Trent-Severn Waterway was approved and construction started in 1906...
to the centre of his Riding
Electoral district (Canada)
An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...
to help local industry, despite engineering reports that that natural water flow would leave the canal dry for much of the year. "Mulock's Madness" was cancelled when Robert Borden
Robert Borden
Sir Robert Laird Borden, PC, GCMG, KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...
became Prime Minister in 1911, but its partially completed remains are still prominent.
Minister of Labour (1900–1905)
While Postmaster-General, Mulock learned from Mackenzie King that Post Office uniforms were being produced in sweatshopSweatshop
Sweatshop is a negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for very low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labour laws may be violated. Sweatshops may have...
s. He immediately revised Post Office contracting policy so that all uniforms would be produced under Government approved conditions. In 1900, Mulock introduced "The Fair Wages Resolution" governing all Canadian government contracting, and an Act that created the Department of Labour and the Labour Gazette (one of the ancestors of Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada is the Canadian federal government agency commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. Its headquarters is in Ottawa....
). Mulock became Canada's first Minister of Labour in addition to his Post Office responsibilities. In response to an urgent telegram from Mulock, Mackenzie King turned down a better paid academic position at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
to become Editor of the Labour Gazette and subsequently the first Deputy Minister of Labour. King eventually became Canada's longest serving Prime Minister, and remained friends with Mulock for the rest of his life. In 1903 Mulock introduced compulsory arbitration
Compulsory arbitration
Compulsory arbitration. In labor disputes, some laws of some communities force the two sides labor and management, to undergo arbitration. These laws mostly apply when the possibility of a strike seriously affects the public interest...
to Canada through the Railway Disputes Act.
Mulock retired from politics in 1905 due to rheumatism
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...
and neuritis exacerbated by overwork, but the movement of his political views to the left may also have contributed to his decision.
Chief Justice
Mulock was appointed Chief Justice of the Exchequer (1905–1923) and subsequently Chief Justice of Ontario (1923–1936). He served until age 93, probably a record for a Canadian court; lawyers referred to Mulock and his elderly colleagues as "murderers' row". As Chief Justice of Ontario, Mulock participated in many widely publicized cases, such as quashing the rape conviction from Louis-Mathias AugerLouis-Mathias Auger
Louis-Mathias Auger was an Ontario teacher and political figure. He represented Prescott in the Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal member from 1926 to 1929....
's first trial in 1929.
On February 28, 1930, a Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
mob invaded the home of a mixed race couple 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...
. Several men were eventually convicted, but given only a small fine. On appeal, Mulock described the fine as a "travesty of justice", and replaced it with a three-month prison term. Mulock reported himself as an ardent abolitionist in his youth, and as a politician he actively campaigned in black communities, but in his ruling Mulock denounced only mob law, not the underlying racial issues. This ruling marked the start of a significant decline in Klan activity in Canada.
In 1931, Tim Buck
Tim Buck
Timothy "Tim" Buck was a long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada...
and seven other members of the Communist Party of Canada
Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...
were convicted of seditious conspiracy and membership in an unlawful organization. The strongly anticommunist Mulock presided over the appeal of the convictions in 1932, and despite dismissing the conspiracy charge, upheld the other convictions and his lengthy written decision established the Communist Party as an unlawful organization, effectively banning it.
By modern standards, Mulock's judgements were not always free of apparent bias or conflicts of interest. In the long and very public case of "Campbell v Hogg", he was close to all participants, and Elizabeth Campbell was so unhappy with his court's judgement that to overturn it she became the first woman to argue a case before the Privy Council
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is one of the highest courts in the United Kingdom. Established by the Judicial Committee Act 1833 to hear appeals formerly heard by the King in Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is one of the highest courts in the United...
.
Business & Community
Farming
In 1880, Mulock purchased a large property on what is now the northwest corner of Mulock Drive and Yonge StreetYonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...
in Newmarket. On almost 400 acres Mulock established a manorial estate and model farm, known for its flowers, black walnut grove, apple orchard, and prize shorthorn cattle and shetland ponies. In political life, Mulock was often referred to as "Farmer Bill". The farm was used to try out new methods and crops, and provided agricultural and leadership training for many students from the Ontario College of Agriculture
Ontario Agricultural College
The Ontario Agricultural College originated at the agricultural laboratories of the Toronto Normal School, and was officially founded in 1874 as an associate agricultural college of the University of Toronto...
. In 1926, Mulock purchased a second farm in Markdale, Ontario
Markdale, Ontario
Markdale is a community in the Municipality of Grey Highlands, in Grey County, Ontario, Canada.Markdale was first settled in 1846 and originally called East Glenelg, after a nearby township. In 1864, it was renamed Cornabus after the Islay, Scotland hometown of then-postmaster Donald MacDuffie...
for trout fishing and reforestation.
Banking and Commerce
Mulock's (and later his son's) firm represented many commercial interests, including Consumers Gas (EnbridgeEnbridge
Enbridge Inc. is a Calgary, Alberta based company focused on three core businesses: crude oil and liquids pipelines, natural gas transportation and distribution, and green energy. The company has approximately 6,000 employees, mostly in Canada and the United States...
), the American Bank Note Company
American Bank Note Company
The American Bank Note Company was a major worldwide engraver of national currency and postage stamps. Currently it engraves and prints stock and bond certificates.-History:Robert Scot, the first official engraver of the young U.S...
, and Sun Life
Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial Inc. is an international financial services company known primarily as a life insurance company. Based in Toronto, Canada, Sun Life and its partners provide insurance, retirement and investment solutions for individuals and businesses around the world including Canada, the United...
. He was President of the Victoria Rolling Stock Company and the Farmers' Loan and Savings Co., and had real estate interests. In 1911, Mulock, Sir Henry Pellatt, and Charles Miller
Charles Miller
-Sportsmen:*Charlie Miller , Major League Baseball player*Charlie Miller , Major League Baseball player*Charlie Miller , Scottish footballer...
took control of O'Keefe Brewing
Carling O'Keefe
Carling O'Keefe originated from Canadian Breweries Limited which was the first brewing conglomerate in Canada and is now owned by Molson Coors Brewing Company.-Carling 1840-1930:...
, a brand now owned by Molson Coors Brewing Company
Molson Coors Brewing Company
Molson Coors Brewing Company is a company that was created by the merger of two of North America's largest breweries: Molson of Canada, and Coors of the United States, on February 9, 2005...
.
Mulock was one of the founders of The Dominion Bank
The Dominion Bank
The Dominion Bank was a Canadian bank based in Toronto and incorporated in 1869 that merged on February 1, 1955 with the Bank of Toronto to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank. -History:...
,
which opened for business in 1871 and in 1955 merged with the Bank of Toronto
Bank of Toronto
The Bank of Toronto was a Canadian bank, founded on July 8, 1857 by George Gooderham, that merged with The Dominion Bank on February 1, 1955 to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank...
to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank
Toronto-Dominion Bank
The Toronto-Dominion Bank , is the second-largest bank in Canada by market capitalization and based on assets. It is also the sixth largest bank in North America. Commonly known as TD and operating as TD Bank Group, the bank was created in 1955 through the merger of the Bank of Toronto and the...
, currently Canada's second largest bank. He was also one of the founders (1882) and Directors of Toronto General Trust, Canada's first trust company and an ancestor of TD Canada Trust
TD Canada Trust
TD Canada Trust is the personal, small business and commercial banking operation of the Toronto-Dominion Bank in Canada. TD Canada Trust offers a range of financial services and products to more than 10 million Canadian customers through more than 1,100 branches and 2,600 ATM Green Machines...
.
In 1899, as chief Liberal Party organizer in Ontario, Mulock wanted a Liberal paper to counterbalance the Conservative Toronto Telegram
Toronto Telegram
The Toronto Evening Telegram was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at both the federal and provincial level. The paper competed with the liberal Toronto Star...
. He led a group that purchased the ailing Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
and offered Joseph Atkinson
Joseph E. Atkinson
-External links:*-References:...
the position as editor. Atkinson accepted on the condition that he have editorial independence and that part of his pay would be in shares. Mulock unhappily agreed, and Mulock and Atkinson clashed for the rest of their lives. It gave Atkinson great pleasure at the 1913 annual shareholders meeting to interrupt Mulock in mid-tirade to announce that he was now the majority shareholder and would do what he chose.
Community & Philanthrophy
Throughout his life, Mulock's strong interest in "plain people (and) public practical problems" involved him in leadership in innumerable community organizations. These included the CNIB, the Federation for Community Service (an ancestor of the United WayUnited Way of Canada
United Way of Canada is the national organization for the 117 autonomous, volunteer-based United Ways across Canada. United Way campaigns raise money for local groups that address community issues and problems, and the national organization provides leadership, services and coordination to the...
), St. John Ambulance
St. John Ambulance
St John Ambulance, branded as St John in some territories, is a common name used by a number of affiliated organisations in different countries dedicated to the teaching and practice of medical first aid and the provision of ambulance services, all of which derive their origins from the St John...
, the Working Boys Home, and the Soldiers Rehabilitation Fund.
Cardinal McQuigan credited Mulock with helping Catholics fully participate in the civic life of Ontario.
In 1925, Mulock was the leading organizer of the Banting Research Foundation, Canada's first medical research foundation.
Despite playing a key role in forcing Laurier to commit Canadian forces in the Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, after his retirement from politics, Mulock spoke out against militarism. Mulock became the first president of Canada's first national, secular peace organization, the Canadian Peace and Arbitration Society, founded in 1905. When Britain entered World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Mulock immediately started organizing the Toronto and York County Patriotic Fund (later part of the Canadian Patriotic Fund
Canadian Patriotic Fund
The Canadian Patriotic Fund was a private fund-raising organization incorporated in 1914 by federal statute and headed by Montreal businessman and Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Herbert Brown Ames....
) to assist soldier's families. Mulock was President of the Toronto and York Fund for its entire existence (and chair of the Canadian executive); the Toronto fund raised $8,939,143, with only about 2% spent on expenses. At age 99 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he served as Chair of the Canadian Committee of the International YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
, responsible for supervising enemy prisoners in Canada. He considered information from Canadian prison camp officials to be hearsay
Hearsay
Hearsay is information gathered by one person from another person concerning some event, condition, or thing of which the first person had no direct experience. When submitted as evidence, such statements are called hearsay evidence. As a legal term, "hearsay" can also have the narrower meaning of...
that could not replace direct inspection.
Personal life and Character
William Mulock married in May 1870 Sarah Ellen Crowther, daughter of James Crowther. She was born and educated in Toronto. The couple lived at 518 Jarvis Street in Toronto. The couple had six children (William, Edith, Sarah, Ethel, James, Cawthra).Mulock's grandson William Pate Mulock
William Pate Mulock
William Pate Mulock, PC was a Canadian politician.-Biography:William Pate Mulock was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Cawthra Mulock and Adèle Baldwin Falconbridge. His father died in New York City during the influenza outbreak in 1918...
was also a MP for York North
York North
York North was an electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from Confederation in 1867 until 2004. It is also an electoral district that was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1867 to 2007...
.
Mulock's use of profanity was said to be the most picturesque in parliament, and he was known for his consumption of Cuban cigars and rye whiskey. Just before Prohibition
Prohibition in Canada
The temperance movement reached its height in Canada in the 1920s, when outside imports were cut off by provincial referendums. As legislation prohibiting consumption of alcohol was repealed, it was typically replaced with regulation restricting the sale of alcohol to minors and imposing excise...
came into force in Ontario in 1916, he had special concrete compartments built in his house into which he stored a lifetime supply of whiskey.
Mulock was described as "The man who did", his work ethic recognized even by those who sometimes disagreed with what he did. Sir Daniel Wilson referred to him as "the mule". At a luncheon in his honour shortly after his 87th birthday, Mulock described his attitude on growing old:
Mulock is buried in Newmarket Cemetery. The Sir William Mulock Secondary School
Sir William Mulock Secondary School
Sir William Mulock Secondary School is an Ontario secondary school located at 705 Columbus Way, off Mulock Drive in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada...
, Mulock Drive in Newmarket, Ontario
Newmarket, Ontario
Newmarket is a town in Southern Ontario located approximately 50 km north of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area and is connected to Toronto by freeway, and is served by three interchanges along Highway 404. It is also connected to Highway 400 via Highway 9...
, and Mulock Island in Algoma District, Ontario
Algoma District, Ontario
Algoma District is a district and census division in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1858 comprising territory as far west as Minnesota...
are named in his honour.
External links
- Mulock Family Tree
- Ontario Plaques – Sir William Mulock
- Some editorial cartoons featuring Mulock from the Conservative Toronto TelegramToronto TelegramThe Toronto Evening Telegram was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at both the federal and provincial level. The paper competed with the liberal Toronto Star...
at the McCord MuseumMcCord MuseumThe McCord Museum is a public research and teaching museum dedicated to the preservation, study, diffusion, and appreciation of Canadian history...
: http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.7.67, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.7.1, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.35, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.76, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.92, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.140, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.159, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.197, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.199, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.215, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.234, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.237, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.236, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.249, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.8.253, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.2.93|230804, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.5.35, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?accessnumber=M2001X.6.43.5.43