W. Garfield Weston - Early Years

Early Years

W. Garfield Weston was born in the apartment above his father's Toronto bread factory in February 1898 Years later, he recounted a family story of how his father, George Weston, brought him down to the bakery floor, shortly after his birth, to put him "in the smell of bread." In 1917, weeks before turning nineteen, Garfield Weston joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force to fight in World War I. A year earlier he had quit school to join up, but his father refused to give his consent – the legal age of enlistment being nineteen at the time. In the interim, he was put to work in George Weston's biscuit factory, cleaning and repairing the equipment. While in uniform overseas, Garfield toured the world famous British biscuit factories and became convinced that the same sort of product could be manufactured and marketed in Canada.

In 1919, after serving in France as a 'Sapper' laying communications lines at the front, Garfield returned home to take up duties at his father's company. He was eventually promoted to vice president of George Weston Limited and then general manager of the company's biscuit plant. Garfield next convinced his father to import biscuit making equipment from England: "He went back to England and not only brought out the best and most modern biscuit-making machinery money could buy, but he hired some of the leading biscuit experts in England, and moved them and their families to Toronto. Then as a further step to insure absolute uniformity of the product, the Weston firm installed a creamery to produce its own butter.".

In 1922, Weston's English Quality Biscuits were launched. Introduced at that year's Canadian National Exhibition, the Toronto Daily Star reported long lines of fairgoers waiting to sample the new product.