Alan Brookman Beddoe | |
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Alan Brookman Beddoe
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Born |
Ottawa, Ontario |
June 1, 1893
Died | December 2, 1975 | (aged 82)
Allegiance | Canada |
Service/branch | Royal Canadian Navy |
Rank | Lieutenant-commander |
Awards | OC, OBE, HFHS, FHSC |
Other work | artist, war artist, consultant in Heraldry and founder and first President of the Heraldry Society of Canada |
Lieutenant-Commander Alan Brookman Beddoe, OC, OBE, HFHS, FHSC (June 1, 1893 – December 2, 1975) was a Canadian artist, war artist, consultant in heraldry and founder and first president of the Heraldry Society of Canada in 1965.
Born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1893, he studied at Ashbury College. During World War I, he was captured at Second Battle of Ypres in 1915 and spent two and a half years in the prisoner of war camps at Gießen and Zerbst. He studied art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After the war, he studied at the Art Students League of New York under DuMond and Bridgman. In 1925, he opened the first commercial art studio in Ottawa. He was also an expert in heraldry. The Alan Beddoe collection at Library and Archives Canada contains designs and studies for the Book of Remembrance, postage stamps, posters, crests, money, architecture and coats-of-arms. His fonds include slides, colour transparencies, prints, watercolours and drawings related to Canadian heraldry.
Beddoe was instrumental in the creation of the major Books of Remembrance, now housed in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The artist originally chosen for the job, James Purves, died in 1940, at which time Beddoe took on the task. He supervised a team of artists for about the next 2 years to illuminate and hand-letter the books, listing the names of Canadians who lost their lives in Canada's military service during World War I and after World War II he supervised another team of artists to create the Book of Remembrance for World War II. He was inducted to the OBE and received the Allied Arts Medal awarded by the Royal Architectural Institute for his work on the Books of Remembrance and made an officer of the Order of Canada. He also was instrumental in the creation of the South Africa Book of Remembrance 1956–1966; Yvonne Diceman, who had worked with him on the Book of Remembrance WWII, produced the Korea Book of Remembrance 1957–1958 and the Newfoundland Book of Remembrance 1972.