William Mulock - Personal Life and Character

Personal Life and Character

Prime Minister Mackenzie King and Sir William Mulock at breakfast on Mulock's 101st birthday

William Mulock married in May 1870 Sarah Ellen Crowther, daughter of James Crowther. She was born and educated in Toronto. The couple lived at 518 Jarvis Street in Toronto. The couple had six children (William, Edith, Sarah, Ethel, James, Cawthra). Mulock's grandson William Pate Mulock was also a MP for York North.

Mulock's use of profanity was said to be the most picturesque in parliament, and he was known for his consumption of Cuban cigars and rye whiskey. Just before Prohibition came into force in Ontario in 1916, he had special concrete compartments built in his house into which he stored a lifetime supply of whiskey.

Mulock was described as "The man who did", his work ethic recognized even by those who sometimes disagreed with what he did. Sir Daniel Wilson referred to him as "the mule". At a luncheon in his honour shortly after his 87th birthday, Mulock described his attitude on growing old:

I'm still at work with my hand to the plough and my face to the future. The shadows of evening … lengthen about me but morning is in my heart. … the testimony I bear is this: that the castle of enchantment is not yet behind me, it is before me still and daily I catch glimpses of its battlements and towers. The best of life is always further on. The real lure is hidden from our eyes, somewhere behind the hills of time.

Mulock is buried in Newmarket Cemetery. The Sir William Mulock Secondary School, Mulock Drive in Newmarket, Ontario, and Mulock Island in Algoma District, Ontario are named in his honour.