I took a walk through Mount Pleasant Cemetery this afternoon, as spring is finally in the air!
This cemetery in the heart of the city has served the Toronto community since 1876. I spent much of 2003/04 running through this cemetery preparing for my Ironman USA triathlon, and I would like to think I know it well. Today, I took a few photos of some of it’s more interesting sites.
1) Captain Fluke; 2) Matthew Sheard
The mysterious Captain James Fluke was born in Ireland in 1824. He was not a captain (in the Navy sense) but a militia captain and made his money running a hotel in Blackstock, Ontario. In 1877, at the age of 53, he fell from a ladder and never worked again. His wife, Charlotte, had the mausoleum erected for him. What is fascinating about the Fluke mausoleum is that everyday – at least everyday I’ve walked/run past this site – there are fresh flowers on the handle of the mausoleum. Who leaves them? …
Matthew Sheard has, hands down, the biggest, tallest, most erect monument in Mt. Pleasant. His father, Joseph, was Mayor of Toronto in 1871-72. Matthew was an architect by profession. And hmmmm, I wonder if the size of his monument has any relation to the size (or lack of size) of his peepee?
3) The Eaton Mausoleum; 4) inside the mausoleum (you’ll have to turn your head)
Ah the Eatons; an iconoclastic Canadiana family with Sir Timothy at the helm. Every Canadian knows the Eaton story. The family’s mausoleum is the biggest and grandest in Mt. Pleasant. I was visiting this mausoleum once while a fashion film shoot was taking place and the ‘prop’ the model was using was a live, 6 foot long white Siberian Tiger on a chain. Honest to gawd! Never had such a fright in my life.
5 & 6) William Lyon Mackenzie King
Canada’s longest serving (and craziest) Prime Minister.
“King continued to hold séances throughout his life. With a few close friends and sometimes a medium, King regularly communicated with the spirits of his mother (to whom he was excessively devoted), his grandfather (the leader of the 1837 Rebellion, William Lyon Mackenzie), his predecessor Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the great nineteenth-century British Liberal Prime Minister Gladstone, as well as Saints Luke and John, all of who advised him on his career and politics!” (source)
7) Kenneth Gilbert Meacham and Gregory Roger Andre Munt
This grouping of two sarcophagi and a beautiful bronze sculpture have always intrigued me. Clearly these two gentlemen had a history together … and I suspect a loving one at that. Meacham died in October 1993; Munt 8 months later in June 1994. The sculpture has a plaque (and testament) from Gregory to Kenneth. Beyond that, I know nothing about these two.
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