Thornton F. Summerhayes

Thornton Frank Summerhayes was an Anglican priest who studied at Trinity College. Born in 1874 to William Frank Summerhayes and Thirza Toogood at Wimbledon, Surrey, England, in 1888 he and his family moved to Toronto. From 1888 to 1899 he worked at various law offices in Toronto, starting as an office boy and eventually progressing to law student.

In 1899, Summerhayes enrolled at Trinity College as a student of Theology. While there, he represented Trinity in the Inter-College Debating Union, and served on the editorial board for the Trinity University Review. He graduated in 1904, with an Honours Licentiate in Theology, and also as awarded the Osler Special Reading Prize. Afterwards, he was ordained a priest and began serving at St. Peter’s Church in Cobourg. During his long career he served many churches, including the parish at Gore’s Landing, St. Matthew’s Church in Toronto, Church of the Good Shepherd in Mount Dennis, St. Monica’s Church in Toronto, and St. Saviour’s Church in East Toronto.

From 1919 until 1944 Summerhayes was secretary for the Toronto Diocesan Council for Social Service. He was also acting General Secretary of the Christian Social Council of Canada. A prolific writer, he wrote for the Trinity Review, later producing reports for an International Joint Committee on Palestine in Washington DC, and for a Joint Parliamentary Committee in Ottawa.

Summerhayes married Alice Jupp in 1900 and they had a son, Douglas Thornton Summerhayes. Alice passed away in 1910 and in 1916 he married Ella Beatrice Farr, who died in 1942. Thornton Summerhayes passed away in 1960, and is buried in Toronto.

2020/05/12

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