SEXTON, William Francis (1852-1933), a builder and architect who lived and worked in Toronto, Ont. and who was also a long-standing member of the Salvation Army in Canada from 1885 until at least 1919. He was referred to as “Captain Sexton, the Headquarters architect” in 1887 when he visited Ottawa to oversee the construction of the new Salvation Army Barracks on Queen Street, and he appears to have served as associate architect to Edmund J. Sherwood, the Chief Architect for the Salvation Army in London, England from 1881 until 1890. His connection with the Army remained in place for nearly 35 years; in 1919 he was described as “Captain Lexton [sic], the architect from the headquarters of the Salvation Army at Winnipeg” when he visited Drumheller, Alberta to supervise the construction of the small Salvation Army Citadel in that town.
Born at St. Mary's, Portsea, Co. Hampshire, England on 19 February 1852, he was the son of William F. Sexton Sr., a builder and contractor. The family emigrated to Canada in 1874, and his son William Jr. learned the building trades under the supervision of his father. William Jr. was listed in the Toronto City Directory of 1882 as a carpenter. By 1886, however, he began to style himself as “ builder & architect”, and his name appears in Toronto directories as an architect in 1889 to 1891.
The design of new citadel buildings in England and Canada during the 1880's was tightly controlled from the London head office of the Salvation Army by E.J. Sherwood until January 1890 when Sherwood moved to South Africa. The Army then changed its policy to allow local architects to design new citadels in England and in Canada. In Ontario, this included many commissions given to Herbert G. Paull (from 1894 to 1902), and then to Brig. Gideon Miller, who designed virtually all new barracks structures for the Army in Canada from 1906 to 1931. Sexton continued to assist the Salvation Army of Canada overseeing and co-ordinating the construction of many of these new barracks buildings until 1920. He later died in Toronto on 9 August 1933 (obituary Toronto Star, 10 August 1933, 21; biog. J. McKendry, Architects Working in the Kingston Region. 2019, 101).
(works in Canada)
KINGSTON, ONT., Salvation Army Barracks, Queen Street at Bagot Street, 1886, a new citadel built to replace the original barracks erected in 1883 which burned in August 1886; later converted to an auto garage in 1913; demol. 1975 (J. McKendry, Bricks in 19th Century Architecture of the Kingston Area, 2017, 42-44, illus. & descrip.)
BELLEVILLE, ONT., Salvation Army Barracks, 1886
OWEN SOUND, Ont. Salvation Army Barracks, 1886
OTTAWA, ONT., Salvation Army Barracks, Queen Street at O'Connor Street, 1887-88 (Ottawa Journal, 20 Sept. 1887, 2; 20 Feb. 1888, 1; Daily Citizen [Ottawa], 21 Sept. 1887, 4)
DRUMHELLER, ALTA, Salvation Army Barracks, 1919 (Drumheller Mail, 20 March 1919, 10)