Stephen P. H Butler Leacock was the best-known English-speaking humorist in the world between 1915 and 1925. Leacock’s two masterpieces are Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912) and Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich (1914), both of which explore themes of politics, religion and society in two very different settings.
When Stephen was six, he came out with his family to Canada, where they settled on a farm near the village of Sutton, Ontario, and the shores of Lake Simcoe. There Stephen was home-schooled until he was enrolled in Upper Canada College, Toronto.
Leacock died of throat cancer in Toronto in 1944. By his wishes, after his death, Leacock was buried in the St George the Martyr Churchyard (St. George’s Church, Sibbald Point), Sutton.
The church opened its doors on January 1858.
Photos: Vlad Umnov