Walter Seymour Allward

Walter Seymour Allward
Walter Allward in 1913
Born	(1876-11-18)18 November 1876 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died	24 April 1955(1955-04-24) (aged 78) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Monument sculptor and designer

Walter Seymour Allward (18 November 1876 – 24 April 1955) was a Canadian monumental sculptor widely praised for his "original sense of spatial composition, his mastery of the classical form and his brilliant craftsmanship"

Allward's 1917 heroic monument, the Bell Telephone Memorial, has been seen as the finest example of his early works. It brought the sculptor to fame and led to Allward later creating the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, his most renowned work. Some of the sculptor's works have also been acquired by the National Gallery in Ottawa, Canada's preeminent art gallery.

Allward has been described as "...probably Canada's most important monumental sculptor in the first third of [the 20th] century".

Allward was born in Toronto, the son of John A. Allward of Newfoundland. Educated in Toronto public schools, his first job was at the age of 14 as an assistant to his carpenter father. Allward first served an apprenticeship with the architectural form Gibson and Simpson before working at the Don Valley Brick Works, where he modelled architectural ornaments. There he showed skill in clay mold making. This early training, supplemented by modelling classes at the New Technical School, prepared Allward for his lifelong career as a monumental sculptor.

Allward's first commission was for the figure of Peace on the Memorial of the Battles in the North-West (1895) in Queen's Park, Toronto. Other early works included a life-sized figure of Dr Oronhyatekha commissioned by the Independent Order of Foresters for the opening of the Temple Building in Toronto (1899), and the Old Soldier, commemorating the War of 1812 in Toronto's Portland Square (now Victoria Memorial Square) (1903). Also in 1903, Alas elected an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy and in 1918 became a full academician. Now well established he received commissions to do busts of Lord Tennyson, Sir Charles Tupper, Sir Wilfrid Laurier and others. On the grounds of Queen’s Park are statues of General John Graves Simcoe and Sir Oliver Mowat, completed in 1903 and 1905 respectively.