Tombstone of Thomas Jenkins (November 30, 1868 - March 23, 1931), his wife and his children. Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, Canada. Fall afternoon, 2023. Pentax K1 II.
From The Globe, March 24, 1931, page 14:
THOMAS JENKINS
TORONTO HARBOR BOARD
PASSES SUDDENLY
Noted Toronto Art Dealer
Dies in His Sleep From
Heart Attack
AT WORK ON SATURDAY
Between midnight and dawn of yesterday morning, at his home, 97 Dunvegan Road, Thomas Jenkins of Jenkins Art Galleries, Chairman of the Toronto Harbor Commission, died in his sleep. His death was due to heart failure.
Mr. Jenkins had been at business on Saturday, and on Sunday seemed in his usual health, his friends say. For some years he had been subject to heart attacks, and doctors had advised Mr. Jenkins to give up active business.
Far from giving up, Thomas Jenkins latterly increased his activities each year. To the two main branches of his business in Toronto and Montreal, he had latterly added many outside interests. The art galleries themselves grew constantly. Four times since 1913, when the firm of B. M. and T. Jenkins moved to its present College Street quarters, the Toronto galleries have been enlarged. Today there is nothing to surpass them on this continent, and the salesroom in the Jenkins Gallery is larger than Christie's famous Great Room in London.
Thomas Jenkins was born in Toronto, a scion of Philip Henry Jenkins, who came from Birmingham to Canada in the sixties. The boy grew up in Toronto, went to Church Street School and began early to learn the antique business in his father's Queen Street store. When he was still a child, the family moved to Iowa for a short time, but came back again and opened the Yonge Street business later to be famous as "B. M. and T. Jenkins." At that time, Tom Jenkins joined the Queen's Own and remained with the volunteers until, a years or two later, he went to the United States again to seek his fortune.
In New York, Tom Jenkins got a job in the property room of David Belasco's theatre. It was only a little time before the young Canadian was property man to the great American actor. Then, as Tom Jenkins used to tell his friends, "they tried to make an American out of me, and I came home." But the friendship between David Belasco and his one-time property man remained. The old actor never came to Toronto without calling at the Jenkins Galleries to see Tom Jenkins.
Tom Jenkins began to take an active interest in the family business from the time of his return to Canada. In 1903 he married Frances Maud Ferris, the daughter of George Ferris of Ingersoll. The young couple went to England where Tom Jenkins established the London branch of the firm in 1904.
Twelve years ago, Mrs. Jenkins died. Four daughters survive their father: the Misses Kathleen, Dorothy, Marjory and Ruth Jenkins. The funeral of the late Thomas Jenkins will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2:30, to Mount Pleasant Cemetery. The Rev. W.R.R. Armitage, rector of the Church of the Messiah, of which the late Thomas Jenkins was for many years a member, will conduct the service.
