Samuel Bickerton Harman

Samuel Bickerton Harman

Samuel Bickerton Harman (born December 20, 1819 in Brompton ( London ), † July 26, 1892 in Toronto ) was a Canadian lawyer and accountant. From January 1869 to January 1871, Harman was the 18th mayor of Toronto.

Samuel Bickerton Harman attended King's College in London and began his professional career in 1840 as a clerk at Colonial Bank's in Barbados . Two years later he married in Toronto, and one year later his first son, Samuel Bruce, was born in Grenada . In 1847 he returned to England, apparently for family reasons. A year later he emigrated to Canada with his wife and four sons. He studied law in the 1850s and graduated from Trinity College in 1855. Between 1850 and 1853 Harman and his wife had three more children, and a daughter born in 1856 died three years later. Harman was involved in founding the Toronto Boat Club in 1852, which was later renamed the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. In 1866 he took up his first political office as a councilor for the Ward St Andrew's. He was in the city government until 1872 and was appointed mayor by the council from 1869 to 1871. During his tenure, he reformed the city's administration, which was previously carried out by part-time workers, into a professionally run institution. Samuel Bickerton Harman was considered someone who could use his extraordinary political and organizational skills well. After his time as mayor, he trained appraisers for the city tax authority, who are recognized to have done an excellent job.

Web links

• Samuel Bickerton Harman . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).