He was the second son of Sir John Craig Eaton and Lady Eaton (Flora McCrea Eaton) of Toronto. John David grew up in Toronto on a large estate overlooking the city. His mother, Lady Eaton, was a Toronto society matron and hosted many major functions at Ardwold.
Foreign other people named John Eaton, see John Eaton (disambiguation). The home was called Ardwold. Sir John died of pneumonia in 1922 at the age of 45.
Since Sir John had 2 sons who could have taken over Eaton"s of Canada, Timothy Craig and John David, a codicil had been eventually put in his will that a "contest" would determine which of the two boys would get the company.
Timothy was sent to the Winnipeg store and John went to Montreal. They ran their individual stores for 1 year, at which time a determination was made as to who had done the better job.
Timothy was given a sum of money, approximately C$2 million, as compensation for not getting the presidency and control of the company. He was also given a life-long store cr of 10% on purchases.
He spent nearly all the money or loaned it out to others who never paid him back.
He kept a small black book with the loans in it for the rest of his life. Eventually, he was called into the Eaton"s export headquarters in London and was read the "riot act". He was going broke. His inheritance was running out.
He was given a strict yearly pay out, and eventually his inheritance returned to its former amount through company-administered investments.
They moved to Aurora, Ontario, on Yonge Saint North. across from Saint Andrews College. He had no children. John David was 33 when he became president of Eaton"son
Control of the company then went to John David"s sons, who ran it until it closed in 1999.
