William Mellis Christie
Plot G, Lot 9
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
A native of Huntly, Scotland, William Christie was born on January 5, 1829. He obtained a good education and then became a baker’s apprentice while still quite young. Christie soon decided to seek out his future elsewhere and consequently came to Canada in 1848. Trying his luck first in the banking trade, he much preferred the bakery business and in 1849 joined the firm of Mathers and Brown, biscuit manufacturers.
The next year, Mr. Mathers retired and Christie became a partner with Alexander Brown. Then Mr. Brown retired, but rejoined the company eight years later. The enterprise was renamed Christie, Brown & Company, the name by which it is still known. Brown retired for a second time in 1879 and William Christie carried on alone until he passed away at his residence, 29 Queen’s Park (now Queen’s Park Crescent East) on June 14, 1899.
In addition to his business interests, Christie was a staunch and avid supporter of the Toronto Industrial Exhibition (since 1912, the Canadian National Exhibition) and was intimately involved with its development since its formation in 1879.
On the death of his father, Robert Jaffray Christie took over as president, a position he held until his death June 13, 1926, twenty-six years less one day after his father. His death occurred in the same house on Queen’s Park Crescent. Also buried in the Christie family plot are William’s wife, Mary Jane (d. December 28, 1909), Robert’s wife Emma (d. June 19, 1954) and their three children. Indicative of the mortality rates of the last century, three of William Christie’s children who did not survive childhood are buried in a single grave.
Mike Filey
Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide
Second Edition Revised and Expanded