Beck was born in
Baden,
Canada West to
German immigrants, Jacob Beck and Charlotte Hespeler (sister of
William and
Jacob Hespeler). He was the great-great-grandson of Count
Károly Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka (1723–1795). He attended school at the
Rockwood Academy in
Rockwood, Ontario. As a teenager he worked in his father's
foundry, and later established a
cigar-box manufacturing company in Galt (now
Cambridge, Ontario) with his brother William. In 1885, he moved the company to
London, Ontario, where it quickly flourished and established Beck as a wealthy and influential civic leader. He was also involved in
horse breeding and racing, and at a horse show in 1897 he met Lilian Ottaway of
Hamilton daughter of
Cuthbert Ottaway and
Marion Stinson. Lilian's mother, by then Marion Crerar, objected to their 21-year age difference – she was 19 and he 40 – as well as Beck's love of
horse racing, which they felt would keep him away from home. Nevertheless, they were married on September 7, 1898. Beck named their London mansion Headley, after Lilian's parents' home in
Surrey, England. In addition to horse breeding, for which he won numerous prizes, Beck was also associated with
tennis and
lawn bowling. Also in 1898, Beck ran for provincial legislature for the first time, but lost. In 1900, Beck founded the London Health Association, which would later develop into the University and Victoria Hospitals. In 1902, he was elected
mayor of London and a few months later was elected to the Ontario legislature as the
Conservative member from the London
riding. He was re-elected mayor in 1903 and 1904 while simultaneously serving as a member of the provincial legislature (which is no longer permitted). Already a wealthy man, he donated his salary to charity while serving as mayor. In 1905, he was appointed
minister without portfolio in the government of
premier Sir
James P. Whitney. Beck was an early and prominent advocate of publicly owned electricity grids, opposing the privately owned companies who he felt did not adequately serve the needs of the public. With the slogan "Power at Cost" and in
Latin, "
dona naturae pro populo sunt" ("the gifts of nature are for the public"), he convinced Premier Whitney to create a board of enquiry on the matter, with him as chairman. The enquiry suggested creating a municipally owned hydroelectric system, funded by the provincial government, and using water from
Niagara Falls and other Ontario lakes and rivers. In 1906 Whitney appointed Beck the first chairman of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission. He was knighted by
King George V in 1914 for his promotion of electricity and development of transmission lines. In 1915, he tried to introduce a network of
interurban railways, known provincially as radials (long-distance trolleys) in Ontario under public ownership, but this plan had to be put on hold during
World War I. In the 1919 post-war election, Beck lost his seat to Hugh Stevenson as the
United Farmers of Ontario swept the Conservatives out of power. Beck continued to push his radial railways proposal after World War I, which pitted him against Premier
Ernest Drury, with whom he had an antagonistic relationship. In 1920, Drury created a
Royal Commission, chaired by
Robert Franklin Sutherland, which concluded that the popularity of automobiles had rendered Beck's proposal obsolete. During his time in the provincial legislature Beck remained active in London. His daughter Marion, born in 1904, suffered from
tuberculosis, but with Beck's wealth and influence she had access to the best doctors and medicine. Realizing that not everyone could afford such care, in 1910 Beck founded a
sanitorium, which was very advanced for its time. The Queen Alexandra Sanitorium, named after
Alexandra of Denmark, wife of King
Edward VII, was officially opened on April 5 of that year by
Governor General Earl Grey. It was later renamed the Beck Memorial Sanitorium. Later still it was renamed the Children's Psychiatric Research Institute (CPRI). Today the building houses the London
Child and Parent Resource Institute. In 1918 Beck also paid fellow Londoner
Guy Lombardo to play at Marion's
débutante party. Lilian Beck died of
cancer on October 17, 1921. In 1923 Beck was re-elected to the Ontario legislature, until his own death from
anemia in 1925. Former
Prime Minister of Canada Arthur Meighen, Ontario premier
George Howard Ferguson, and London mayor
George Wenige attended his funeral. The Queenston Chippawa power station (now
Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Power Stations), which he helped to create, was renamed after him in 1950. Also named for him were Sir Adam Beck Collegiate Institute, a public
secondary school in London which is now home to the
Thames Valley District School Board headquarters, an
elementary school in
Upper Beaches, Toronto, Ontario, and a bilingual
elementary school in
Etobicoke. Sir Adam Beck Public School was built in his hometown of Baden. Sir Adam Beck Community Park in Baden is also named in his honour. In 1990, Headley, the Becks' mansion at Richmond and Sydenham streets, was demolished by Sifton Properties Ltd. and replaced with a condominium replica dubbed the Sir Adam Beck Manor. In Toronto, there is a statue of Beck (
Adam Beck Memorial), sculpted by Emanuel Hahn, on
University Avenue at Queen Street West. It was jointly erected by City of Toronto and the Toronto Hydro-Electric Commission in 1934. ==References==