Joseph Wesley Flavelle was born on February 15, 1858, in
Peterbough, Canada West, to John and Dorothea (Dundas) Flavelle. He married Clara Ellsworth in 1882. By the 1890s, Flavelle had made his fortune in the meatpacking business as president of
William Davies Company, which was the British Empire's largest pork packing firm. He subsequently became prominent in finance and commerce as chairman of the
Bank of Commerce, National Trust and
Simpson's department stores. Flavelle was chairman of the
Imperial Munitions Board during
World War I, and it was for reorganizing the industry that he was awarded a
baronetcy in 1917. His was the last British
hereditary title to be granted in the normal course to a Canadian citizen, due to the passage of the
Nickle Resolution in 1919. Flavelle died on March 7, 1939, in
Palm Beach, Florida. He left his
Queen's Park mansion (Holwood House at 78 Queen's Park Crescent) to the
University of Toronto. It is now called
Flavelle House and forms part of the university's
Faculty of Law. He was succeeded in the
Flavelle baronetcy by his son,
Ellsworth. ==References==