Aemilius Jarvis

Jarvis was notable in Toronto business circles and helped build the King Edward Hotel and Arena Gardens.

He helped create the British Columbia salmon canning industry through the companies that still market Clover Leaf sea food products today.

Jarvis actively supported the Royal Canadian Navy during World War I, recruiting anti-submarine and other ships, and over 2000 men.

[6] (The intermediary was shortly thereafter assassinated on a train platform immediately following passing -and ignoring- Jarvis in a train-car corridor, with several "ugly" men following close behind her.)

Aemilius was recognized by the Navy League of Canada's award of its unofficial “Special Service Decoration” for his wartime contributions.

[2] Jarvis earned the friendship and respect of such men as Lord Minto (Governor General of Canada), J.P. Morgan, Sir Thomas Lipton, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Henry Pellatt, Edward Roper Curzon Clarkson and world-champion rower Ned Hanlan.

Jarvis sailed alone around Lake Ontario, from Hamilton to Niagara-on-the-Lake to Whitby and back, in a tiny dinghy aptly called Tar Pot when he was just twelve years old.

Additionally, he won over 100 international freshwater sailing events while at Royal Canadian Yacht Club (& more than 300 overall[4]), including a second Canada's Cup in 1901.

[2] His business peers signed a petition detailing the reasoned argument for Jarvis' innocence, which was proven when he took the stand in the trial of another charged in the affair.

[10] The former Premier of Ontario, Ernest C. Drury (United Farmers of Ontario party), labelled him "Canada's Dreyfus," a reference to Alfred Dreyfus who was wrongfully charged and jailed in his native France (around the turn of the century) for blatantly political reasons and the Government of Canada would later be petitioned to pardon Jarvis.

Lady Eaton and Aemilius Jarvis at Eaton Hall in King City, Ontario, during the mid 1930s.
Admiral Jellicoe, head of the Navy, Aemilius Jarvis, and Mayor Tommy Church in Toronto – Jellicoe is on the left, Jarvis in the centre, and Church to the right of Jarvis (1918/19)
Sir Thomas Lipton (4) at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Toronto Island 1903 - Commodore Aemilius Jarvis (5), Vice-Commodore Stephen S. Haas (3), and Rear-Commodore George H. Gooderham (6).
The Canada's Cup is a perpetual trophy awarded to the winner of a sailing match race between a yacht representing a Canadian yacht club and a yacht representing an American yacht club. Aemilius Jarvis sailed for the cup five times, winning the inaugural series in 1896, and repeating in 1901.
In 1899 the Toronto Hotel Company was founded by Amelia's Jarvis – with the support of George Cox (of Canada Life and the Bank of Commerce) and George Gooderham (of Gooderham & Worts Distillery). Jarvis and his Toronto Hotel Co. built the King Eddy, and it opened in 1903.
Text of planned meeting of Jarvis to recruit for the navy
Commodore Aemilius Jarvis at the Griffin Theatre, Thorold; recruiting for the Royal Navy.
Crowd of people in the street in front of a brick building
Aemilius Jarvis recruited ships (including anti-submarine vessels) and over 2000 men for Canada's World War I effort. In the first year of the war, he established a naval recruitment centre in his Toronto office.
The Canada's Cup, originally unnamed, was named after it's inaugural victor, the yacht Canada.
The yacht Canada (left), skippered by 'Skippadore' Aemilius Jarvis, crosses tacks with Vencedor on Lake Erie, near Toledo, Ohio, in the inaugural 1896 Canada's Cup match-racing series from which Canada emerged victor.
The photograph includes a view of the Aurora, ON farmhouse called Hazelburn that was owned by Aemilius Jarvis. Jarvis is on the third horse from the left.
Royal Hamilton Yacht Club (ca 1910)
Aemilius Jarvis organized the establishment of the Hamilton Yacht Club in 1888.