Robert John Fleming (November 23, 1854 – October 26, 1925) was twice

Mayor of Toronto The mayor of Toronto is the head of Toronto City Council and chief executive officer of the municipal government. The mayor is elected alongside city council every four years on the fourth Monday of October; there are no term limits. While in ...

(1892–1893 and 2nd incumbency 1896–1897) Born in

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 ancho ...

, Robert John Fleming was of Irish ancestry, the son of William and Jane (Cauldwell) Fleming. Educated in Toronto public schools he first entered the business world in real estate. From there he moved on to the

Toronto Railway Company The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was the operator of the streetcar system in Toronto between 1891 and 1921. It electrified the horsecar system it inherited from the Toronto Street Railway, the previous operator of streetcar service in Toronto. ...

becoming the general manager in 1905. He was also a member of the

Orange Order in Canada The Grand Orange Lodge of British America, more commonly known as the Grand Orange Lodge of Canada or simply Orange Order in Canada, is the Canadian branch of the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternal organization that began in County Armagh in Ire ...

. Fleming's political career began as an

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

for the Ward of St. David's 1886 to 1890. In 1892 Toronto municipal election, he was elected mayor of Toronto. He was defeated in

1894 Events January–March * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United S ...

and

1895 Events January–March * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. * January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...

but was returned to office in the

1896 Toronto municipal election Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

and again the next year. He resigned in 1897 to accept appointment as an assessment commissioner of Toronto and held that position until 1904. In 1894, he presided over the National Exhibition Convention at Montreal. Fleming was president in 1895 of the Dominion Prohibitory Alliance. He strongly believed in the prohibition of liquor traffic. Fleming resigned as Mayor in 1897 and ran for mayor again in the

1923 Toronto municipal election Municipal elections were held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 1, 1923. Charles A. Maguire was reelected to his second term as mayor. Toronto mayor Charles A. Maguire had been acclaimed as mayor the election previously. The 1923 campaign f ...

against Mayor

Charles A. Maguire Charles Alfred Maguire (May 24, 1875 – October 14, 1949) was mayor of Toronto from 1922–1923. Charles Alfred Maguire was born in Toronto, the son of James Maguire and Elizabeth Brown. Maguire worked in an insurance company (Maguie & C ...

and was defeated. As a businessman he was general manager of the Toronto and Niagara Power Company, general manager of the

Toronto Electric Light Company The Toronto Electric Light Company was an early electricity supplier in Toronto, founded and presided over by John Joseph Wright (1847–1922) and owned by Sir Henry Pellatt. Founded in 1882, TELC opened a steam driven power plant at Scott Street ...

and general manager of the

Electrical Development Company of Ontario The Toronto Power Generating Station is a former generating station located along the Niagara River in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, slightly upstream from the newer Rankine power station. Completed in 1906 in the Beaux-Arts-style, the stati ...

. He was also director of the

Toronto Board of Trade The Toronto Region Board of Trade is the principal local business community organization in the City of Toronto. It is the largest Chamber of Commerce/board of trade in Canada and one of the largest in North America. Its primary contemporary focu ...

. He was a member of the Toronto Harbor Commission in 1921. Fleming Crescent in

Leaside Leaside (/'liːˌsaɪd/) is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located northeast of Downtown Toronto, in the vicinity of Eglinton Avenue East and Bayview Avenue. The area takes its name from William Lea and the Lea family, who se ...

is named in his honour.

Personal life

He married (first) in December 1879 Margaret Jane Breadon, who died in March 1883; she was the daughter of Christopher Breadon of Montreal. His second marriage in October 1888 was to Lydia Jane Orford, daughter of William Orford of Toronto. He was the father of four sons and five daughters. Fleming had an active interest in thoroughbred horses. Robert John Fleming died in 1925 and was buried in

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a cemetery located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries. It was opened in November 1876 and is located north of Moore Park, a neighbourhood of Toronto. The cemetery has k ...

References

* Jesse Edgar Middletown: ''The Municipality of Toronto - A History'', Dominion Publishing, 1923 * Cath McKenty, née Fleming: ''Polly of Bridgewater Farm.'' (about the family of Fleming and immigration from Tyrone to Canada) * * Jane Pitfield: ''Leaside'', Natural Heritage, 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Robert John 1854 births 1925 deaths Canadian people of Irish descent Mayors of Toronto