Toronto Necropolis is a non-denominational cemetery 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 anch ...

, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the west side of the

Don River The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its ...

valley, to the north of

Riverdale Farm Riverdale Farm is a municipally operated farm in the heart of Cabbagetown, an urban neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is maintained by Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division. History Between 1888 and 1974, this was the sit ...

in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood. The cemetery was opened during the 1850s to replace the Strangers' Burying Ground, which had been established in 1826 and closed in 1855. It is part of the

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries, which also includes Mount Pleasant Cemetery and York Cemetery in Toronto, among others.

Notable interments

* Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott – first Canadian-born black surgeon ** His father Wilson Ruffin Abbott – successful Black Canadian businessman and landowner * George Blewett (1873–1912) – academic and philosopher *

Thornton Blackburn Thornton Blackburn (1812–1890) was a self-emancipated formerly enslaved man whose case established the principle that Canada would not return slaves to their masters in the United States and thus established Canada as a safe terminus for the Under ...

– former slave who made his way to Canada on the "Underground Railroad" and established the first cab company in Toronto (1890) * Joseph Bloore – for whom a major Toronto thoroughfare,

Bloor Street Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct, which spans the Don River Valley, westward into Mississauga where it ends at Central Park ...

, is named. *

George Brown George Brown may refer to: Arts and entertainment * George Loring Brown (1814–1889), American landscape painter * George Douglas Brown (1869–1902), Scottish novelist * George Williams Brown (1894–1963), Canadian historian and editor * G ...

– One of the

Fathers of Confederation The Fathers of Confederation are the 36 people who attended at least one of the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 (23 attendees), the Quebec Conference of 1864 (33 attendees), and the London Conference of 1866 (16 attendees), preceding Canadian ...

and founder of what is now ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' *

Henry Box Brown Henry Box Brown (c. 1815 – June 15, 1897) was a 19th-century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 to abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For a short tim ...

, African American who famously escaped slavery in 1848 by mailing himself in a custom-made box from Richmond to Philadelphia. He later became a lecturer and entertainer, spending his last two decades in Toronto. *

Roy Brown (RAF officer) Arthur Roy Brown, (23 December 1893 – 9 March 1944) was a Canadian flying ace of the First World War, credited with ten aerial victories. The Royal Air Force officially credited Brown with shooting down Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red ...

– World War I fighter pilot, officially credited with shooting down

Manfred von Richthofen Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (; 2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of ...

, the "Red Baron" * Royal Air Force pilots Durlin D. Bushell, Augustus White, Howard Harris and Arthur Green; died from

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

(1918)
Kay Christie
(1911–1994) – Canadian Nursing Sister in Hong Kong during the Japanese Invasion during World War II. One of two Canadian Nursing sisters to have been held as a Prisoner of War. * Mollie Christie (1913–2013) – Prominent figure in the early days of Toronto's social welfare services; Founding Executive Director of the Community Information Centre of Metropolitan Toronto (now accessible by "211" help line and 211.ontario.ca website) * Ralph Day (1898–1976) –

mayor from 1938 to 1940 * Ainsworth Dyer – a corporal in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and died in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

in 2002 * Robert Alexander Fyfe (1816–1878) – Canadian educator, churchman (first President of Woodstock College). *

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 ...

– world-champion oarsman.

Hanlan's Point Beach Hanlan's Point Beach is a public beach situated on Hanlan's Point in the Toronto Islands near Toronto, Ontario on the shore of Lake Ontario. A 1 kilometre-long part of the beach was officially recognized by the city in 2002 as being clothing opt ...

was named after the family hotel at Hanlan's Point, built c. 1870 by his father, John, a fisherman-turned-hotelier. *

William Holmes Howland William Holmes Howland (11 June 1844 – 12 December 1893) was Mayor of Toronto from 1886 to 1887. He was also a member of the Orange Order in Canada. Biography Prior to William Holmes Howland becoming Toronto's 25th mayor, he was a businessm ...

, Mayor of Toronto * William Peyton Hubbard (1842–1935) – black Toronto city alderman *

Jack Layton John Gilbert Layton (July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011) was a Canadian academic and politician who served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2003 to 2011 and leader of the Official Opposition in 2011. He previously sat on To ...

(1950–2011) – politician (Toronto City Councillor, later leader of the New Democratic Party) * Charles Lindsey – editor-in-chief of the ''Toronto Daily Leader'' and son-in-law of

William Lyon Mackenzie William Lyon Mackenzie (March12, 1795 August28, 1861) was a Scottish Canadian-American journalist and politician. He founded newspapers critical of the Family Compact, a term used to identify elite members of Upper Canada. He represented Yor ...

(1908) *

Samuel Lount Samuel Lount (September 24, 1791 – April 12, 1838) was a blacksmith, farmer, magistrate and member of the Legislative Assembly in the province of Upper Canada for Simcoe County from 1834 to 1836. He was an organizer of the failed Upper Can ...

Upper Canada MLA; an organizer of the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, for which he was hanged, and so made

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

to the Upper Canadian Reform movement. * Monument honouring

and Peter Matthews – rebels from the

Rebellion of 1837 Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

* Senator John Macdonald (1824–1890) – Canadian merchant, churchman, philanthropist, and politician *

– Toronto's first mayor and leader of the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion * Major Wylie McCabe – Irish Regiment of Canada and aide-de-camp to General Charles Foulkes * Andrew Porteous – first person to be buried at Necropolis 1850 *

John Ross Robertson John Ross Robertson (December 28, 1841 – May 31, 1918) was a Canadian newspaper publisher, politician, and philanthropist in Toronto, Ontario. Career Born in 1841, in Toronto, the son of John Robertson, a Scottish wholesale merchant, and ...

– founder of the ''

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 the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed w ...

'' * George A. Romero (1940-2017) - Filmmaker, father of the modern zombie film genre through his

Night of the Living Dead ''Night of the Living Dead'' is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, with a screenplay by John Russo and Romero, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven pe ...

series. * Beverly Randolph Snow 1799 -1856. Born enslaved he was manumitted in 1829. Snow became an early black entrepreneur and restaurateur in both Washington DC and Toronto. In August 1835 his Epicurean Eating House was destroyed by a white mob during a race riot subsequently known as the " Snow Riot" or "Snow Storm". * Joseph Burr Tyrrell (1858–1957) – discovered that dinosaurs once roamed Alberta's Bad Lands * David Ward (1817–1881) & Family, English-born settler of Ward's Island, interred along with four of his five daughters at Plot F-157. David was a fisherman and hotelier for whom Ward's Island was named. Lost his five surviving daughters to drowning in

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 ...

on May 11, 1862, in a boating mishap. A son, William, survived. (William's first wife, Charlotte Ford, also died young, of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

, and is also interred here. A close friend, rower Ned Hanlan, above, had served as a witness to their wedding.) The cemetery contains the war graves of 34 Commonwealth service personnel, 29 from World War I and five from World War II. Most of these are in Section X.Toronto Necropolis
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery Report. Breakdown obtained from casualty records. The cemetery has over 50,000 bodies. It is used to bury bodies used for research at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

and is now part of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries. The cemetery's

crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...

was built in 1933. 20100531 Robert S

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cemeteries in Toronto Gothic Revival architecture in Toronto 1850 establishments in Canada Burials at Toronto Necropolis Necropoleis

Notable interments

See also

References

External links