Necropolis Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Toronto, located on the west side of the Don Valley near Riverdale Farm. Opened in 1850 to replace "Strangers' Burying Ground" (or Potter's Field), the cemetery is the resting place for many dead Torontonians including:
Joseph BlooreWilliam Lyon Mackenzie – Toronto's first mayor and leader of the 1837 Upper Canada RebellionGeorge Brown – One of the Fathers of Confederation and founder of what is now The Globe and MailRoy Brown (RAF officer) – World War I fighter pilot, officially credited with shooting down Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron"John Ross Robertson – founder of the Toronto TelegramGeorge Blewett (1873–1912) – academic and philosopherWilson Ruffin Abbott – successful Black Canadian businessman and landownerDr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott – first Canadian-born black surgeonNed Hanlan – world-champion oarsmanMonument honoring Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews – rebels from the Rebellion of 1837Andrew Porteous – first person to be buried at Necropolis 1850Charles Lindsey – editor in chief of the Toronto Daily Leader - son-in-law of William Lyon Mackenzie (1908)Samuel LountWilliam Peyton Hubbard (1842–1935) – black Toronto city aldermanRalph Day (1898–1976) – Toronto mayor from 1938 to 1940Thornton Blackburn – former slave who made his way to Canada on the "Underground Railroad" and established the first cab company in Toronto (1890)Joseph Burr Tyrrell (1858–1957) – discovered that dinosaurs once roamed Alberta's Bad LandsRoyal Air Force pilots Durlin D. Bushell, Augustus White, Howard Harris and Arthur Green; died from Spanish Flu (1918)Major Wylie McCabe – Irish Regiment of Canada and aide-de-camp to General Charles FoulkesAinsworth Dyer – a corporal in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and died in Afghanistan in 2002Senator John Macdonald (1824–1890) – Canadian merchant, churchman, philanthropist, and politicianRobert Alexander Fyfe (1816–1878) – Canadian educator, churchman (first President of Woodstock College).Kay Christie (1911–1994) – Canadian Nursing Sister in Hong Kong during the Japanese Invasion during World War II. One of two Canadian Nursing sisters to have been held as a Prisoner of WarMollie Christie (1913–2013) – Prominent figure in the early days of Toronto's social welfare services; Founding Executive Director of the Community Information Centre of Metropolitan Toronto (now 611)Jack Layton (1950–2011) – politician (Toronto city councillor, later leader of the New Democratic Party)The cemetery contains the war graves of 34 Commonwealth service personnel, 29 from World War I and 5 from World War II. Most of these are in Section X.
The cemetery has over 50,000 bodies. It is used to bury bodies used for research at the University of Toronto and is now part of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries.
The cemetery's crematorium was built in 1933.
