Jane Bigelow (1928 - ) was a politician and the mayor of London, Ontario from 1972 to 1978. She also served as controller on the city's Board of Control before and after her term as mayor.
She was born in Toronto in 1928 and educated at St. Clement's Girl's School and the University of Toronto where she completed a B.A. in Physical and Health Education in 1950. She trained as a teacher and taught in high schools in Ottawa, Hamilton and Edmonton.
After settling in London in 1965 with her husband and two children, she took courses at the University of Western Ontario towards a B.A. and began a master's program in urban studies. She participated in the founding of the Central London Association and the Urban League, a group that was designed to coordinate the efforts of local citizens' groups. She also became involved in the London Council of Women, serving on the committee which helped save the Broughdale Lands. Bigelow was active in local and provincial NDP organizations, serving as vice-president of the provincial party from 1968 to 1972. She organized several conventions for the party and was responsible for the Handbook for Municipal Politicians, published in 1968.
In 1969, she was elected to the Board of Control and when she was re-elected in 1971, she received the most votes out of all the controllers making her the deputy mayor. When mayor Fred Gosnell resigned for health reasons in February 1972 she took over as acting mayor. In March 1972, Bigelow was elected mayor by council and in 1973 she was elected mayor by the public in a general election. She was re-elected in 1974 and 1976 but was defeated in the 1978 election by Al Gleeson, an instructor at Fanshawe College.
As mayor, Jane Bigelow advocated for accessible day care, better public transit with special fares for senior citizens, neighbourhood improvement schemes, funding for the arts, more parks and better city planning. She was criticized for being uninterested in development. During her mayoralty, London received a triple A rating from two independent American organizations. In her last years of office, she became interested in financial planning and tax reform for municipalities. She was actively involved in several joint municipal-provincial organizations and represented London's interests at both higher levels of government. In 1974, she was invited with six other Canadian mayors to visit Israel and in 1976, she was a representative to the Habitat Conference and the Conference of Mayors held in Milan.
Some of the major issues during her term as mayor included the Talbot Square development, the London Regional Art gallery, the restoration of the Middlesex Court House and the possibility of siting a prison in London.
She was elected to the Board of Control in 1980 but did not run in 1982. She was later employed by Employment and Immigration Canada. She was honoured with several awards and recognitions for her public service.
William Atcheson Stewart was born on a farm near Denfield, Ontario on February 26, 1915 to parents George A. Stewart and Frances Langford. He was educated at a local public school and attended Lucan high school during his teenage years. Stewart dropped out of high school in Grade 10 to pursue work on his family’s farm. Through his continued farm work, Stewart developed a fascination and passion for agricultural work.
William Stewart married Edythe M. Jones of Granton in 1940. They had four daughters, Marilyn Jenken, Norma Brock, Barbara Shipley, and Gay Slinger. Stewart was an active member of the agricultural community and headed several special committees on agricultural affairs. In 1957 William Stewart was elected MPP for Middlesex North for the Progressive Conservative (P.C.) Party in a by-election. He was re-elected in general elections in 1959, 1963, 1967, and 1971. In 1960, Stewart turned down a position as Minster of Transportation and entered as a Minister without Portfolio later that same year. In 1961 Stewart took on the position of Minister of Agriculture, and later Minister of Agriculture and Food, which he held until his retirement in 1975. Stewart retired as the longest serving Agricultural Minister in Canada.
During his time in office, William Atcheson Stewart was responsible implementing many important acts to further the agricultural sector in Ontario. These pieces of legislation include The Animals for Research Act 1968-1969, Beef Cattle Marketing Act 1968, an Act to Provide for Inspection of Meat for Human Consumption 1962-1963, and An Act respecting Ontario Agricultural College, Ontario Veterinary College and Macdonald Institute 1961-1962, to list a few.
Although Stewart was forced to retire from politics due to heart conditions, he remained active in the agricultural community in an advisory capacity and joined many major companies as a board member, including Ontario Hydro.
Stewart remained a longtime friend of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC), a part of Guelph University. He was granted an LLD from the OAC in 1976, his first university degree. He also conferred an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1978. Stewart maintained close ties to the University of Guelph, eventually serving as Chancellor from 1983-1989. Stewart was also the first recipient of the Centennial Medal from the OAC at the University of Guelph during their centennial celebrations in 1974.
With encouragement of his family, Stewart wrote an autobiography of his life, “Rural Roots and Beyond,” outlining his childhood, political career and his retirement. The book was published in 1990, shortly before his death.
William Atcheson Stewart died of a heart attack at Victoria Hospital on December 8, 1990 at the age of 75. Stewart was inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1988 and inducted into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1992.
Born July 2, 1867. Died 1920. Son of Thomas Frazer Kingsmill and Anne (Ardagh) (Burris) Kingsmill. Henry Ardagh Kingsmill married Inez Ethelyn Smith (1870-1956), an American singer, in 1902. They had two children: Sidney Ardagh and Eleanor.
He graduated with a medical degree from Western University in 1895, and served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. His name is on a campus plaque honouring Western University's soldiers of WWI. He died during a soldier's flu epidemic in 1920 at the age of 53.
Arthur Kingsmill was born in 1870 and died 1898. Son of Thomas Frazer Kingsmill and Anne (Ardagh) (Burris) Kingsmill. He married Jane “Jennie” King on July 1, 1891. Together they had three children: Arthur King, Jack Ardagh and Marjorie.
Arthur ran a second Kingsmill's location on King Street in Chatham, across from the market. Arthur died tragically young at the age of 28 from blood poisoning and the Chatham Kingsmill's location closed for good.
Born April 24, 1891. Died March 29, 1970. Son of Thomas Frazer Kingsmill (Jr.) and Kate Isabel (Ford) Kingsmill. Brother of George Frederick Kingsmill and Alice Ruth (Kingsmill) Hodgins. He married Margaret Campbell (October 10, 1889 - June 25, 1968) on October 27, 1917. They had one child, Katherine Elizabeth.
Thomas Ford Kingsmill was heavily involved in the London community. He was elected to the Victoria Hospital Trust 3 times, and resigned to run for mayor. He was elected Mayor of London in 1936, 1937 and 1938. He then returned to the Victoria Hospital Trust. Appointed provincial representative on the Hospital Trust in 1948, serving until 1960. He was a member of: Kiwanis Club, St Paul's Cathedral's Men's Club, St. John's Lodge No. 209a, Mocha Shrine, Knights Templars and the Orange Order. Was a 32nd degree Mason in the Scottish Rite.
He became managing director of Kingsmill's Limited in 1915 when his father Thomas Frazer Jr. became head of the business. He was subsequently elected president and general manager of Kingsmill's Ltd in 1939 upon the death of his father. Remained as such until 1968, when he relinquished the position but remained as director until his death. He held a directorship in the Ontario branch of the Retail Merchants Association, and was active in the London Chamber of Commerce.
Born November 12, 1954. Son of Thomas Frederick Kingsmill and Clarissa "Claire" (Barker) Kingsmill. Married Laurie Martha Glass on October 3, 1992. They are parents to Emily Kingsmill.
Tim Kingsmill was President of Kingsmill Limited from 2003-2014. He created the first website for Kingsmill's in the 1990's.
In 2001 Kingsmill's expanded into a previously rented space at 128 Dundas to create Kingsmill's Next Door, a specialty kitchen store.
Both the store buildings and the business were put up for sale on September 27, 2013. The store closed for good on August 10, 2014.
David Mills was born 18 March 1831 in Orford Township, Upper Canada, to Nathaniel Mills and Mary Guggerty. David received his early education at the local school in Palmyra Corners. He became a teacher and from April 1856 to April 1865 he served as a school superintendent in Kent. He married Mary Jane Brown on 17 December 1860 in Chatham, Upper Canada, and had three sons and four daughters. During this time spent as superintendent he also farmed on his inherited part of the family farm at Palmyra. By 1864 he seems to have become active politically in the Reform party in Kent.
In 1865 he enrolled at the University of Michigan Law School from which he graduated in March of 1867. Mills attained his degree but made no formal application to the law society until 1878, and he was not called to bar until 1883. He first practiced law in the firm of Ephraim Jones Parke in London, Ontario and later practiced with one of his sons. In 1885 he was on the faculty of the newly opened London Law School as professor of international law and the rise of representative government. Five years later he became a Queen's Council lawyer.
After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1867, Mills returned to Canada and secured the Reform nomination for the federal constituency of Bothwell, which covered parts of Kent and Lambton counties. He would hold the seat until 1882 and again from 1884 to 1896. He introduced a motion to do away with the practice of dual representation at the federal level on 20 November 1867 and had it completely abolished in 1873. In 1872 he suggested that senators be properly elected or chosen directly by the provincial legislatures, and remained an advocate for the Senate to be rendered a better guardian of provincial interests. Mills told parliament in June 1869 that if ever it was "a question whether Federal or Local Legislatures should be destroyed," his view was that "the country would suffer far less by the destruction of the Federal power."
In 1872 he asked Oliver Mowat, the Liberal premier of Ontario from 1872 to 1896, to prepare a written defense of the province's placement of its disputed western and northern boundaries. The report was published in early 1873 and made Mills a key player in the boundary dispute. Mills was asked in January 1876 to chair the select committee established to investigate the economic depression and was appointed minister of the interior in October.
The defeat of the Mackenzie government in the election of 1878 put an end to Mills' ministerial duties and administrative ambitions. He retained Bothwell, however, making him one of the senior Ontario Liberals in the caucus. He was one of the leaders of the movement in 1880 to oust Mackenzie from the leadership position. Mills became one of Edward Blake's chief lieutenants when he became leader and coordinated the Liberal filibuster in 1885. He considered his speech of 1 April 1885 to be one of the finest speeches of his parliamentary career.
As editor-in-chief of the London Advertiser from 1882 to 1887, Mills built a case against the Macdonald government's administration of national affairs in a series of unsigned, but distinctive, editorials. He seems to have been particularly active as a journalist in 1883, when he was defeated in the election of 20 June 1882 and was forced to sit out a session of parliament while his case was considered by the courts. He won in February 1884 and returned to the commons. In 1886 he followed Blake in condemning the execution of Louis Riel and in 1889 he delivered a strong speech opposing disallowance, arguing that parliament had no business interfering with legislation that was clearly within provincial jurisdiction. In the 1890 debate over the use of French in legislature, Mills delivered an eloquent speech in defense of linguistic rights.
Mills lost Bothwell in the general election of 23 June 1896. Although summoned to the Senate in November 1896, he was not invited to join the cabinet. He consequently devoted more time to his law practice in London, continued his work at the University of Toronto, where he had been appointed in 1888 to teach constitutional and international law, and wrote and lectured on a wide variety of religious and political subjects. Laurier asked Mills to fill the vacancy left by Sir Oliver Mowat in 1897 and on 18 November he was sworn in as minister of justice and became government leader in the Senate.
In 1902 Mills arranged his own appointment as a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, a move that was widely criticized. On 8 May 1903, Mills died suddenly of an internal haemorrhage, leaving behind his wife and six of his children.
John Harris was ordered into the British Royal Navy in 1803, after a brief service in the merchant marine. During his time in the navy, Harris rose to the rank of Master where he was responsible for maintaining, outfitting and navigating the ship and was required to note features of coastlines that had not been recorded. Harris was ordered to assist with the survey of the Great Lakes, under Commodore Edward Owen, in 1814. One of his first assignment was to survey the north shore of Lake Erie for a ship building site. John Harris retired on half-pay from the Navy in 1817 and moved to a farm near Long Point with his wife, Amelia Harris.
Harris was appointed to Treasurer of the London District in 1821. As Treasurer, Harris was responsible for tax collecting, overseeing public expenditure, issuing and receiving receipts for the sale of land, and other financial matters for the London District. Following the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, Harris was appointed as a members of the Rebellion Losses Claims Commission. The Commission was established to review claims for losses suffered during the 1837 Rebellion in the London District and determine the compensation to be allotted.
John Harris remained active in the London political sphere until his death in 1850.
Elizabeth Gale was born c. 1801 in England. It is unknown when Gale immigrated to Canada. She settled in London, Ontario and worked as a milliner. In the 1883 City Directory, Gale’s residence and business are listed at 264 Dundas Street. Her business was categorized as millinery and fancy goods. On November 14, 1882, the county sheriff seized the inventory of stock of her business. Gale was accused of absconding debtors. On June 4, 1884, Elizabeth Gale did not appear at the Court of the County of Middlesex for her hearing. She was required to pay $248.57 plus $20.01 in taxes to John D. Ivey and Co. The inventory seized by the county sheriff was sold to pay this debt. In 1884, Gale is listed as a widow and a boarder with Alfrid Avery at 8 Horton Street.
The Ermatinger family is well-known in the history of pre-Confederation Canada; members of several generations of the Ermatinger family were involved with the fur trade, and others achieved notoriety as politicians, lawyers, and public servants. The first Ermatinger known to have settled in North America was Lawrence Ermatinger (b. ca. 1736 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland), a merchant who settled in Montreal in the early 1760s. Ermatinger supplied goods to North American and British buyers, including fur traders and the British army. Lawrence Ermatinger married Jemima Oakes and had eight children. Two of the Ermatinger sons were particularly prominent in North America. Frederick William Ermatinger (1769-1827) served as Sheriff of Montreal and was one of the Bank of Montreal’s first directors. Charles Oakes Ermatinger (1776-1833) was a fur trader, initially working for the North West Company and then independently. Another Ermatinger son, Lawrence Edward Ermatinger, moved from Montreal to Italy, Spain, and England. Lawrence Edward Ermatinger is the father of Edward and Francis Ermatinger, brothers who came to North America as clerks for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Records from many members of the Ermatinger family survive in libraries and archives throughout Canada. The Ermatinger Old Stone House in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (built 1814) and the Francis Ermatinger House in Oregon City, Oregon (built 1845) are today museums dedicated to providing insight into North American pioneer life.
Daughter of Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke and Jessie Maria Gurd, later married to Dr. Edwin Seaborn in 1904. They had one child, Ina (Dee-Dee) Jessie Helene.
Jan (Ian) Eisenhardt was born April 24th, 1906 in Hjørring, Denmark. After attending schools in Denmark and France, Eisenhardt received a scholarship to study at the University of British Columbia’s School of Commerce in 1928. From 1929-1930, Eisenhardt worked as a Playground Attendant for the City of Vancouver before returning to France to play professional football (soccer) for the Olympique de Marseille football club. In 1932, Eisenhardt returned to Vancouver and became the Playground Supervisor for Vancouver. In 1933, Eisenhardt became a Canadian citizen.
In 1934, as the Director of Physical Education for the Province of BC, Eisenhardt developed and led the Provincial Recreation program, popularly known as Pro Rec. In this role and as the Chairman of a federal committee on Youth Welfare, Eisenhardt developed recreation and fitness programs for the unemployed during the Depression. At the outbreak of World War II, Eisenhardt enlisted in the Canadian Army, rising to the rank of Major and becoming the director of the Canadian Army Sports Program in 1943. In 1944, he was named National Director of Physical Fitness for Canada and appointed chair of the National Council on Physical Fitness where he participated in drafting the National Physical Fitness Act. After the war, Eisenhardt became the Director of Staff Activities for the United Nations in New York in 1947 and was later assigned to UNESCO in Paris.
In February of 1950, Eisenhardt became the Supervisor of Physical Education and Recreation for the Indian Affairs branch of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. In this role, he toured and drafted a physical education programme for residential schools and established the Tom Longboat Awards. By November of 1951, dissatisfied with the lack of support for the physical education program, Eisenhardt resigned from his position effective December 1951. In January 1952, shortly after beginning his job as the Director of Canadair Employees’ Recreation Association in Montreal, he was fired from this position after having allegedly been ‘blacklisted’ by the Canadian government. Eisenhardt later spent years working to clear his name and made a claim for compensation from the government.
In Quebec, Eisenhardt worked for the Community Club in La Tuque in 1953 and was hired by the Dominion Life Assurance Company in Montreal in 1954. Eisenhardt was active in the Danish community in Canada, serving as President of the Danish Club in Montreal from 1960-1965. In the 1970s, Eisenhardt worked as a lecturer of Scandinavian literature and Campus Administrator for John Abbott College where he organized tours of Denmark and East Germany for students. Eisenhardt continued to promote fitness and recreation initiatives, including crossing the Øresund Bridge from Denmark to Sweden in 2000 and Walk for Health, where he visited elementary schools to promote staying active. As a resident of Dorval, Eisenhardt ran for Alderman in 1992 and Mayor in 1998.
Later in life, Eisenhardt received many accolades for his contributions to sport and recreation in Canada including a Canadian Sports Lifetime Achievement Award, a Queen’s Jubilee Medal, and was a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and the Order of Canada. He received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Malaspina University College (now Vancouver Island University) in 2004. Jan Eisenhardt married Barbara Ferdon in 1949 and had four children. Barbara died in 1995 and Jan Eisenhardt died on December 26, 2004 at the age of 98.
Albert Augustus Phipps was born on 1 July 1847. He was the son of Hon. Sir Charles Beaumont Phipps and Margaret Anne Bathurst. He died on 16 January 1875 at age 27. He served in the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps, in London, Ontario, among other places ca. 1867. See http://www.thepeerage.com/p8624.htm. He was the Prince Consort Albert's godchild.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_godchildren_of_members_of_the_British_Royal_Family#Albert.2C_Prince_Consort.
Thomas Frazer Kingsmill : born in Ireland in 1840 and died in 1915 in Canada. Married Anne (Ardagh) (Burris) in 1857. Immigrated to the United States before settling in Canada in 1860. Moved to London in 1864.
6 children: Mary Kingsmill, Ann Kingsmill, Alice Maud Kingsmill, Thomas Frazer Kingsmill Jr., Arthur Kingsmill and Henry Ardagh Kingsmill.
Thomas Frazer Kingsmill had a 2nd bigamous marriage to Margaret (Gill) Kingsmill. They had 3 children: Percy Kingsmill, Irene Kingsmill and Vernon Kingsmill.
Thomas Frazer Kingsmill founded Kingsmill's as a dry goods store in London in March 1865. He also opened Kingsmill's Carpet Warehouse, which closed in the early-middle 1900's. He was President of Kingsmill's until his death in 1915. After his death Margaret went to court to challenge his will, which left the bulk of the estate to Thomas Frazer Kingsmill Jr. She declared Thomas Frazer Sr. intended to leave the Kingsmill Carpet
Robert Frazer Kingsmill was the brother of Thomas Frazer Kingsmill. He immigrated with his mother Mary (Frazer) Kingsmill to Toronto in 1952. He married Mary E. Centrillion and together they had 5 children: James William, Thomas Frazer, Robert, Arthur Henry and Frank J. He operated a dry goods store on Dundas St, a couple of doors away from his brother Thomas Frazer.
Born August 27, 1923. Died 2011. Daughter of George Frederick Kingsmill and Netta May (Nixon) Kingsmill. Sister of Doris (Kingsmill) Hoskins and Thomas Frederick Kingsmill. Married Corporal Thomas Buchanan Brandon (June 6, 1938 - December 20, 1965), RCAF on December 16, 1944 at Bellevue Park. Parents of one child, Netta Nixon Brandon.
George F. Durand was born in 1850 to James Durand, a building and contracting business owner in London, Ontario. Noticing his son’s artistic ability, James Durand wrote to sculptor and drawing teacher J.R. Peel in 1964 arranging for his son to enroll at Peel’s school. In the late 1860s, Durand articled for architect William Robinson where he met his friend and future partner Thomas Tracy. After his apprenticeship, he was hired by Thomas Fuller to work on the New York State Capital building in Albany, New York. The project became embroiled in scandal when the cost of the building ballooned to well over the original projected cost. As a result of the controversy, Fuller was dismissed which led to Durand leaving the project as well. His experience in New York lasted from 1870 to 1876.
Durand returned to London and formed a partnership with Robinson and Tracy in 1878. In 1880, Robinson left and Tracy and Durand worked as partners. This partnership lasted until Tracy became city engineer and Durand then partnered with architect John M. Moore. In 1888, a legal dispute between Durand and Moore dissolved their partnership. In 1889, Durand began to take large lengths of time off work due to illness and on December 20th of that year he passed away.
James Worrall was born in Bury, Lancashire, England in 1914 and immigrated to Canada in 1922. He graduated from McGill University and from MacDonald College in Montreal in 1935 and taught at Upper Canada College in Toronto before entering Osgoode Hall Law School. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1941. After three years service in the Royal Canadian Air Force he returned to private legal practice in 1945. He continued to practice law, largely in civil litigation and criminal law, until 1976. He acted as counsel on two Federal Royal Commissions and served as an officer and director of several private companies, the Metropolitan Toronto Licensing Commission (as chairman for five years), the Land Compensation Board of Ontario, and the Ontario Municipal Board.
A high-school track and field award recipient, Worrall competed in track and field and water polo for McGill and held several inter-collegiate athletics records. He represented Canada at the 1934 British Empire Games in London and was a silver medalist in the hurdles. His connection with the Olympics dates from 1936 when he competed at the Berlin Summer Games in the 110m and 400m hurdles and where he was selected as the Canadian flag bearer for the opening ceremony. He qualified for the 1938 British Empire Games but withdrew in order to attend law school.
After World War Two Worrall re-established the Ontario Track and Field Committee of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada (AAUC) and served as its chair for several years. In 1947 he became a member of the AAUC Olympic Committee and was appointed Assistant Chef de Mission to the Canadian Team at the Olympic Games in London the following year. He became a charter member and later vice-president of the reorganized and independent Canadian Olympic Association (COA) in 1948 and served as Assistant Chef de Mission in Helsinki in 1952 and Chef de Mission in Melbourne and Rome in 1956 and 1960 respectively. He was elected President of the COA in 1961, serving in that capacity until 1968. He also served as Commissioner General of Olympic House at Expo 67 in Montreal. He was appointed Honorary Life President of the COA in 1989.
Worrall was appointed as a Canadian representative to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1967. In 1974 he served on the IOC Commission on Rhodesia and was elected to the Executive Board of the IOC, the first Canadian to be so recognized. He also chaired the Commission of the Revision of the Charter, a special commission that reviewed the Olympic Charter and associated rules and by-laws, the recommendations of which were adopted in 1990. In 1980 he ran unsuccessfully for the IOC Presidency. He retired as a voting member of the IOC in 1989 and was made an Honorary Member for life the same year.
As President of the COA and as an IOC member Worrall was involved with several applications by Canadian cities to host Pan American Games (Winnipeg 1967), Olympic Winter Games (Calgary 1964 and 1966; Vancouver 1970) and Olympic Summer Games (Montreal 1972 and 1976). He was a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the organizing committees for the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. He was also a director of the Toronto Ontario Olympic Council (TOOC) during its unsuccessful bid for the 1996 Summer Games.
Worrall received many prestigious awards, including the IOC Medal of the Olympic Order in 1990, the Canadian Olympic Order in Gold in 1994, and the Order of Merit from the Association of National Olympic Committees, also in 1994. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976, was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as a builder and administrator in 1987, and was elected to the Winter Olympic Hall of Fame in 1991. Worrall published his autobiography, 'My Olympic Journey: Sixty Years with Canadian Sport and the Olympic Games', in 2000.
Worrall died at age 97 in October, 2011.
John Gordon Adams was the husband of Myrtle Reynolds Adams.
Henry Corry Rowley Becher was born June 5, 1817 in London, England, the youngest son of Captain Alexander Becher, Royal Navy, and Frances Scott Becher. He immigrated to London, Ontario in 1835.
Becher began his legal career by articling with John Wilson and was admitted a law student at Osgoode Hall in 1836. He was appointed Registrar of the Surrogate Court of Middlesex County in 1839. Admitted as an attorney in 1840 and called to the bar in 1841, Becher was elected a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1853 and called to the bar at the Inner Temple, London, England in 1882. Becher was partner with Samuel Barker and William Purvis Rochfort Street in the law firm of Becher, Barker and Street. The firm became Becher, Street & Becher, when his son, Henry Becher, was admitted to a partnership in 1872. He served as solicitor for Colonel Thomas Talbot in the 1850s, drawing up the will that bequeathed the bulk of Talbot's estate to George Macbeth and settling a dispute between Talbot and his nephew Richard Airey; was involved in the settlement of the estate of George Jarvis Goodhue in the 1870s; and served as municipal solicitor for London from 1849 to 1853. In April and May of 1855, he alone handled the crown business at the assizes at St. Thomas, London, and Chatham, and submitted civil briefs at St. Tomas and London. Becher completed the transaction in which the Huron Diocese acquired Rough Park, the estate of Lionel Ridout which became the first site of Huron College in 1863. In 1856, Becher was appointed Queen's Counsel and lectured for a tern at Osgoode Hall. He became solicitor for the Gore Bank and a director of the Great Western Railway in 1857.
Becher served on the London town council from 1850 to 1854. Attempting to enter provincial politics, he failed obtain the Conservative nomination for London in 1857. He won the nomination in 1860, but lost the by-election. In 1861, he again vied for the nomination, but withdrew, after the intervention of John A. MacDonald, to stand for the Legislative Council for Malahide. Defeated, Becher did not run again for public office; however, he remained an active party organizer.
Becher built Thornwood on 13 acres in London, and took up residence there in 1845. He rebuilt the house after it was destroyed by fire in 1852. Becher travelled extensively in Europe, visited the Middle Ease, made several trips to Florida, and wrote A Trip to Mexico after travelling there 1878. In 1880, Becher became a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. His diary has been published in the London Advertiser in 1926 and in Papers and Records of the Ontario Historical Society in 1939.
Becher married Sarah Evanson Leonard, daughter of Richard Leonard, the sheriff of the Niagara District, on October 27, 1841. Together, they had seven children: Frances Anna Maria (born 1842), Alexander (1844), Henry (1846), Richard Leonard (1848), twins Florence Mary and Constantia Ann (1850) and Alice Ethel Jane (1857), who died in infancy. Sara Becher died in 1864. On August 20, 1874, Becher married Mrs. Caroline Robertson, daughter of Samuel Street of Niagara Falls.
Henry Corry Rowley Becher died on July 6, 1885 in Sidcup, England.