The Deacon Shirt Company, Dundas Street, Belleville; photo courtesy of the Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County.
Belleville 1903
The Deacon brothers – William B. and Fred S. – originally operated a haberdashery on Belleville’s Front Street in 1897, but their custom-made shirts became so popular they moved to a larger manufacturing facility on Coleman Street. Business was good.
The new firm – The Deacon Shirt Company – supplied the Canadian military with shirts during the First World War. Their domestic market expanded when the company began manufacturing shirts made from Scottish Viyella, a popular fabric at the time known for its warmth and fine weave. Eventually the company branched into sportswear and changed its name to Deacon Brothers Ltd., obtaining the licence for the use of Grenfell cloth, a wind- and water-resistant cotton, as the demand for windbreakers and ski wear grew.
When the Second World War began, the company moved to Dundas Street and became involved in the design and manufacture of flying suits for the Commonwealth air forces. Allied air crew were freezing to death in unheated, unpressurized bombers at altitudes over 20,000 feet (out of the range of German anti-aircraft guns).
Eric Taylor, a British inventor, together with Fred Deacon Sr. came up with a solution. They designed a flight suit that had a fine copper-edged wire sewn into it. The wire could be plugged into the aircraft’s electrical system. Imagine a flying suit fitted with a toaster wire. The Deacon Brothers also made tropical flying suits out of lightweight Windak. The insulating materials allowed for better ventilation and evaporation, protecting pilots in conditions “where tropic heat and zero cold are minutes apart.”
In the post-war years, Deacon Brothers Ltd. reorganized under the name Deacon Brothers Sportswear Ltd. The company’s staple orders – Boy Scout shirts and raincoats for the Canadian army – were replaced by golf jackets, children’s snowsuits and downfilled outerwear.
But by the late 1980s, interest rates were high, economic conditions were poor and department stores began buying more from overseas markets. The Dundas Street building was sold and the business closed in 1990.
