View source for Adam Beck

{{short description|Canadian politician}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = 
| name                = Sir Adam Beck
| honorific-suffix    = 
| image               = Sir Adam Beck (F1257 s1057 it2415) (cropped).jpg
| imagesize           = 
| office1             = [[Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario)|MPP]]
| party               = [[Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario|Conservative]]
| predecessor1        = [[Hugh Allan Stevenson]]
| successor1          = ''Riding abolished''
| term_start1         = 1923
| term_end1           = 1925
| term_start2         = 1902
| term_end2           = 1919
| predecessor2        = [[Francis Baxter Leys]]
| successor2          = [[Hugh Allan Stevenson]]
| constituency2       = [[London (provincial electoral district)|London]]
| office3             = Chairman of [[Ontario Hydro]]
| predecessor3        = none
| successor3          =
| term_start3         = 1906
| term_end3           = 1925
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1857|06|20}}
| birth_place         = [[Baden, Ontario|Baden]], [[Canada West]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1925|08|15|1857|06|20}}
| death_place         = [[London, Ontario|London]], [[Ontario]]
| restingplace        = [[Hamilton Cemetery]]
| nationality         = 
| spouse              = Lilian (Ottaway) Beck
| relatives           = [[Harry Crerar]] (brother-in-law)
| children            = 
| residence           = 
| alma_mater          = 
| occupation          = 
| profession          = 
| religion            = 
| cabinet             = Minister Without Portfolio (1905–1914)
}}
'''Sir Adam Beck''' (June 20, 1857 &ndash; August 15, 1925) was a Canadian politician and [[hydroelectricity]] advocate who founded the [[Ontario Hydro|Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario]]. 
[[Image:Mayor Thomas Langton Church and Sir Adam Beck.jpg|thumb|Mayor [[Thomas Langton Church]] and Sir Adam Beck (centre)]]
[[Image:Sir Adam Beck Manor.jpg|thumb|Sir Adam Beck Manor in London]]

==Biography==
{{More citations needed|section|date=January 2023}}
Beck was born in [[Baden, Ontario|Baden]], [[Canada West]] to [[Germans|German]] immigrants, Jacob Beck and Charlotte Hespeler (sister of [[William Hespeler|William]] and [[Jacob Hespeler]]). He was the great-great-grandson of Count [[Andrássy|Károly Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka]] (1723–1795).<ref>{{cite magazine |last1= Sauer |first1= Angelika |last2= Stokes-Rees |first2= Emily |date= 1998 |title= Who's Who In German-Canadian History: Wilhelm Hespeler | url= https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/german-canadian/docs/newsletters/newsletter-3.1.pdf  |language= English |magazine= German-Canadian Studies Newsletter  |volume = 3 | issue = 1 | page = 3| location= [[Canada]] | access-date= 22 June 2022| quote= Wilhelm was born on 29 December 1830 in the Grand Duchy of Baden. His mother, Anna Barbara Wick was the granddaughter of the Hungarian nobleman Count Andrassy, and his father a well-to-do merchant who moved from Wurttemberg to Baden.}}</ref> He attended school at the [[Rockwood Academy (Ontario)|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, Ontario|Hamilton]] daughter of [[Cuthbert Ottaway]] and [[Marion Stinson Crerar|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 [[List of mayors of London, Ontario|mayor of London]] and a few months later was elected to the Ontario legislature as the [[Ontario Progressive Conservative Party|Conservative]] member from the London [[Riding (division)#Canada|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 [[List of Ontario premiers|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 [[George V of the United Kingdom|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 Charles Drury|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.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Irrational optimism in a declining industry: Sir Adam Beck's interurban railway proposal | journal = [[Management & Organizational History]] | year = 2006 | first = Marc | last = Mentzer | volume = 1 | issue = 4 | pages = 371–384| url = http://moh.sagepub.com | doi=10.1177/1744935906071910| s2cid = 971933 | url-access = subscription }}</ref>

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 of the United Kingdom|Edward VII]], was officially opened on April 5 of that year by [[Governor General of Canada|Governor General]] [[Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey|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|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 (Toronto)|University Avenue]] at Queen Street West. It was jointly erected by City of Toronto and the Toronto Hydro-Electric Commission in 1934.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* [http://torontosun.com/2015/05/16/ontario-liberals-blacking-out-adam-becks-energy-legacy/wcm/e1a3997d-0bd4-455b-b866-c36b360815d1 Ontario Liberals blacking out Adam Beck's energy legacy], by Christina Blizzard, May 16, 2015
* [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-adam-beck Sir Adam Beck] at [[The Canadian Encyclopedia]], accessed September 1, 2019

== External links ==
{{Americana Poster|Beck, Adam}}
* {{Ontario MPP biography|id=adam-beck|old_id=875|name=Adam Beck}}
* {{DictCanbio|ID=7790}}
* [http://www.londonhistory.org/sabeck.htm Biocards: Sir Adam Beck<!-- bot-generated title -->] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030821213115/http://www.londonhistory.org/sabeck.htm |date=2003-08-21 }} at www.londonhistory.org
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20031005160357/http://www.hydroone.com/en/about/history/adam_beck/ Hydro One : About Hydro One : History : Sir Adam Beck<!-- bot-generated title -->] at www.hydroone.com

{{Mayors of London, Ontario}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Adam}}
[[Category:1857 births]]
[[Category:1925 deaths]]
[[Category:Canadian people of German descent]]
[[Category:Canadian Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Deaths from anemia]]
[[Category:Foundrymen]]
[[Category:Mayors of London, Ontario]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Politicians from the Regional Municipality of Waterloo]]
[[Category:Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs]]
[[Category:University of Western Ontario alumni]]
[[Category:Ontario Hydro]]
[[Category:20th-century mayors of places in Ontario]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario]]