Historic Figures

(1857–1925) In 1902, Sir Adam Beck, one of London’s great public servants, won both the city’s mayoral race and London’s seat for the Conservatives in the provincial election. That same year, strikes in the U.S. coal fields stopped shipments to Ontario, which was entirely dependent on coal-fired plants for its electricity. Along with others, Beck saw a solution in the hydro power potential of Niagara Falls. He was soon head of an organization of municipalities that sought a way to protect Niagara’s power from private monopolies and U.S. interests. In 1906, the province created the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario to distribute and later generate power. Beck was named chairman, and held the office until his death. London’s first public power arrived from Niagara in 1910, the year Beck established another public organization: the London Health Association. The LHA was formed to build a sanitorium in Byron for tuberculosis sufferers, who were then dying at a rate of 2,000 a year in Ontario. The LHA later built University Hospital in 1972. A competitive horseman as a young man, Beck joined the London Hunt and Country Club, where he met many of London’s leaders, and his future wife, Lillian Ottaway. They moved into Headley, a mansion on Richmond Street that has since been reconstructed near the original site. When Beck died, the business of the city stopped as his funeral cortege made its way to the CNR station on York Street. From there his body was taken to Hamilton to be interred next to his wife. Mike Baker
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(1907–1995) It was at the University of Western Ontario that Alexander Knox first demonstrated his skills as an actor. He joined the Hesperian Club and encouraged its members to stage two performances of Hamlet in 1928. Knox, of course, played the lead. Midway through his final year, he accepted a job with a repertory theatre company in Boston, but the Depression sent him back to London by the spring of 1930. He worked as a newspaper reporter and honed his acting skills in amateur productions. In the fall, Knox departed for England. He accepted Tyrone Guthrie’s offer to join the Old Vic Company and was among the first actors to appear on the BBC’s fledgling television service. During this period Knox worked with such stars as Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, and Charles Laughton. When wartime blackouts curtailed theatre and film work, Knox returned to London. His luck changed in March 1940 when he appeared with Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh in a San Francisco production of Romeo and Juliet. Afterwards, Knox repaid the favour by arranging for the famous couple to use his aunt’s farm in St. Marys as a secret retreat. Knox’s Hollywood career reached its peak when he landed the title role in Wilson, a lavish biopic on the First World War-era president, Woodrow Wilson. Knox received a Golden Globe for best actor and was nominated for an Oscar, losing out to Bing Crosby in Going My Way. Before the ceremony Der Bingle confided to a reporter, “I think this other fellow — What’s his name? Knox — should get the Academy Award.” Christopher Doty
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