Lady Eaton and Aemilius Jarvis at Eaton Hall

Edward Aemilius Jarvis (April 25, 1860 – December 19, 1940) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

financier, equestrian, and sailor.

Life and career

Commodore Aemilius Jarvis Royal Navy Recruitment Poster WWI

A member of a

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

family of Loyalist descent, Jarvis

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

d as a banker, and eventually became president of the Trader's Bank of Canada. Jarvis founded the

Steel Company of Canada Stelco Holdings Inc. (known as U.S. Steel Canada from 2007 to 2016) is a Canadian steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario. Stelco was founded in 1910 from the amalgamation of several smaller firms. It continued on for almost 100 years, until i ...

. He built Toronto's iconic King Edward Hotel and created the British Columbia Salmon Canning Industry. Jarvis also formed Æmilius Jarvis & Co., earning the friendship and respect of such men as Lord Minto (Governor General of Canada), J.P. Morgan, Sir

Thomas Lipton Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, 1st Baronet (10 May 18482 October 1931) was a Scotsman of Ulster-Scots parentage who was a self-made man, as company founder of Lipton Tea, merchant, philanthropist and yachtsman who lost 5 straight America's Cup ...

, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir

Henry Pellatt Major-General Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, CVO (January 6, 1859 – March 8, 1939) was a Canadian financier and soldier. He is notable for his role in bringing hydro-electricity to Toronto for the first time, and also for his large château in Toron ...

, Edward Roper Curzon Clarkson and world-champion rower

Ned Hanlan Edward Hanlan (12 July 1855 – 4 January 1908) was a Canadian professional sculler, hotelier, and alderman from Toronto, Ontario. Early life Hanlan was born to Irish parents; one of two sons and two daughters. His mother was Mary Gibbs, his fath ...

. Jarvis was instrumental in forming the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack submar ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, recruiting both ships and men, & acted as a spy for

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

while visiting Tzar Nicholas of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

in 1915. He also operated a stud farm -called Hazelburn- in Aurora, Ontario, breeding hunter-jumper horses. Jarvis' grandson Robert Aemilius Jarvis published the dramatic biography/auto-biography of his grandfather, "The Last Viking".

Legendary yachtsman

Jarvis sailed alone around

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border ...

, from Hamilton to Niagara-on-the-Lake to Whitby and back, in a tiny

dinghy A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which ...

aptly called ''Tar Pot'' when he was just twelve years old. Later in life, he spent two years sailing the world in a square-rigger sailing vessel. He designed and built racing sailboats, founded the

Royal Hamilton Yacht Club The Royal Hamilton Yacht Club (RHYC) is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, at the west end of Lake Ontario, and has been in existence since 1888. When the yacht club first opened, it was located on the Burlington Canal (near the light station), ...

, and was a longtime member of the

Royal Canadian Yacht Club The Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) is a private yacht club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1852, it is one of the world's older and larger yacht clubs. Its summer home is on a trio of islands (RCYC Island, South Island and North Chip ...

, of which he was elected commodore seven times. He won the inaugural

Canada's Cup The Canada’s Cup is a silver trophy, deeded in perpetuity in 1896, to be awarded to the winner of a series of match races between a yacht representing a Canadian yacht club and one representing an American yacht club, both to be located on t ...

yachting race in 1896 sailing the ''Canada'', a 57-foot cutter. Additionally, he won over 100 international freshwater sailing events while at Royal Canadian Yacht Club (& more than 300 overall), including a second Canada's Cup in 1901. Aemilius skippered in every Canada's Cup from 1896-1907 with the sole exception of the 1905 edition; Cup Defenders Rochester Yacht Club made it a stipulation that Jarvis ''not'' skipper in order to accept R.C.Y.C.'s challenge. R.C.Y.C.'s ''Temeraire'' ultimately lost the 30-foot class match-series to Rochester's ''Iroquois''. As a skipper, Jarvis lived by the credo, "A place for everything, & everything in its place," a saying which he took so seriously (for in-race safety reasons) that he was known to throw crew members' items overboard if found laying haphazardly about. He published an account of sailing his yacht, ''Haswell'', from Toronto to the Caribbean in the winter of 1920-21 entitled, "5,000 Miles in a 27-Tonner."

Ontario bond scandal

Jarvis was convicted on a charge of

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...

to defraud the government of the Province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, after having saved that government millions of dollars in the retirement of

war bonds War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are a ...

. Though he was jailed for six months, for the remainder of his life he defended his innocence. He'd refused, against all advice, to testify in his own defence, and one theory as to why is that he was shielding/taking a fall for his son, also charged in the affair, after having tragically lost another son previously in World War I. His business peers signed a petition detailing the reasoned argument for Jarvis' innocence, which was proven when he took the stand in the trial of another charged in the affair. He was ultimately technically cleared, though not officially by the Ontario Government. The former Premier of Ontario,

Ernest C. Drury Ernest Charles Drury (January 22, 1878 – February 17, 1968) was a farmer, politician and writer who served as the eighth premier of Ontario, from 1919 to 1923 as the head of a United Farmers of Ontario– Labour coalition government ...

(

United Farmers of Ontario The United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) was an agrarian and populist provincial political party in Ontario, Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers movement of the early part of the 20th century. History Foundation and r ...

party), labelled him "Canada's Dreyfus," a reference to Alfred Dreyfus who was wrongfully charged and jailed in his native France (around the turn of the century) for blatantly political reasons.

Military

Jarvis actively supported the

during

, recruiting anti-submarine (& other) ships, and over 2000 men. He acted as an unofficial spy for

while visiting

on business in 1915, delivering a message to George's cousin Tzar Nicholas via an intermediary to encourage Russia to stay in the war, in order to maintain two fronts on Germany. (The intermediary was shortly thereafter assassinated on a train platform immediately following passing -and ignoring- Jarvis in a train-car corridor, with several "ugly" men following close behind her.) Aemilius was recognized by the Navy League of Canada's award of its unofficial “Special Service Decoration” for his wartime contributions.

References

Toronto Hunt Aurora, Group & hounds - Jarvis is on the third horse from the left

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarvis, Aemilius 1860 births 1940 deaths Businesspeople from Ontario Canadian Anglicans Canadian male sailors (sport) People from the Regional Municipality of York Sportspeople from Ontario

Life and career

Legendary yachtsman

Ontario bond scandal

Military

See also

References