John Wilson Bengough, cartoonist, was born on 7 April 1851 in Toronto and educated in the Whitby district and grammar schools. In 1873 he founded Grip, a humorous weekly. He provided cartoons for the publication as well as articles and poems for twenty years. In 1892 he became the cartoonist of the Montreal Star before moving on to the Toronto Globe. His cartoons also appeared in the Morning Chronicle in London, England. An advocate of the single tax, prohibition and free trade, Bengough wrote a number of political pamphlets such as The Gin Miller Primer (1898). He also published two books of poetry, Motley: Verses Grave and Gay (1895) and In Many Keys (1902). Lecturing was another of Bengough's many skills, and he made several lectures tours across Canada and the United States giving "Chalk Talks"; in 1909 he made a lecture tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Lucy Benevides, originally from Bermuda, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Once the Air Force was re-opened to women in 1951, she re-joined, eventually rising to the rank of captain. She was stationed at Metz, France in the 1950s. RCAF No. 1 Air Division was located there during the 1950s and 1960s in order the meet Canada's NATO air defence commitments in Europe.
George Anne Bellamy, actress, was born in Fingal, Ireland, on 23 April 1731, possibly 1733, although 1727 is a likely possibility as well. She appeared on the stage in both London and Dublin in the era of Sheridan and Garrick. Her life, however, was marked by gambling and extravagance and her later years by suffering and debt. Her memoirs were published in 1785 in six volumes, An Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy. She died on 16 February 1788.
Laura Beecroft, a missionary with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, began a period of work with the Christian and Missionary Alliance Girls' Training School in Jerusalem, Palestine during the year of 1912. Laura was a missionary and teacher of several subjects including history, Bible studies, and English grammar, composition, spelling and reading. Laura remained in this position until 1915, when in January of that year she relocated to Cairo, Egypt and studied Arabic. Later that year, Laura joined her mother and sister in New York until 1920 when she returned to the American Missionary School in Jerusalem for an unknown period of time.
Samuel Beckett was an Irish author and playwright, born at Foxrock, near Dublin on 13 April 1906. He was educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he read English, French, and Italian. He lived mainly in France from 1932 onwards. His most famous play, En attendant Godot was published in 1952. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1969. He died in Paris on 22 December 1989
Paul Becker was active in many student organizations. In 1960 he was President of the Student United Nations Association in Canada and served as National Federation of Canadian University Students (NFCUS) Chairman at the University of Western Ontario. For the academic year 1961-1962, he was the Vice-President for International Affairs of NFCUS. His predecessor in the job was Jacques Gérin, whose files he inherited. Gérin's files form a separate fonds. Becker's portfolio brought him in contact with the Coordinating Secretariat of the International Unions of Students (COSEC) in The Netherlands. In 1962 Becker served as the NFCUS representative on the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) and then became Vice-Chairman of WUSC. Working for WUSC, he organized an appeal for funds for the National Union of Israeli Students. He served as secretary of the Canadian Committee for the World Assembly of Youth (WAY) and of the Advisory Committee to the Department of the Secretary of State, Canadian Citizenship Branch. He was active as a conference organizer. In 1963 he was the conference secretary for the Conference on Student Mental Health; in 1964 he organized the Canadian Student Journalists conference. He was also on the Board of Directors for Jeunesse Canada Monde/Canada World Youth. He was on the National Executive Council for the International Year of Cooperation (ICY) in Canada in 1965. He was also a member of the Preparatory Youth Committee and Youth Advisory Committee for EXPO 1967 in Montreal. Becker remained in correspondence with NFCUS after it was re-organized as the Canadian Union of Students in 1964.
Beatty Brothers Limited was established in Fergus, Ontario in 1874 by George and Matthew Beatty. In its earliest years the company was primarily a family business involved in the manufacture of farm equipment. At the Toronto Industrial Exhibition in 1879, the company was awarded a bronze medal for engineering excellence. During the same period the two brothers also purchased the Grindley farm implement factory with water power on the Grand River. It manufactured reapers, mowers, straw cutters, land rollers, single and gang plows, and even stoves and cast-iron kitchen utensils.
From the turn of the century to 1961, the company continued to expand. Other companies were purchased: the James Provan Company of Oshawa, Whitman and Barnes of St. Catharines, Cameron and Dunn of Strathroy, Tolton Brothers of Guelph, Emerson and Campbell of Tweed, Wortman and Ward of London, Ont., etc. By 1928 the Beatty product line spanned more than 600 items. Factories in Fergus and London, Ontario employed 600 people, and a further 800 people were employed in Great Britain. There were branches and stores across Canada; by 1939 there were also stores in Australia and New Zealand.
In May 1961 the Beatty family sold their shares to Ralph M. Barford, Robert A. Stevens, and George Gardiner. In 1969 the company amalgamated with General Steel Wares to form GSW Limited.
Clifford Bax, critic, editor, and playwright, was born on 13 July 1886 in Knightsbridge, London. He was educated at the Slade and then the Heatherly Art Schools, finishing his education in Germany. He founded the Phoenix Society (1919-1926) to revive important Elizabethan and Restoration dramas. His first play to be staged was The Poetasters of Ispahan in 1912 and his plays continued to be staged regularly until 1946. Bax died on 18 November 1962.
Gary Barwin is the author of twenty-six books of poetry and fiction, as well as works for children and teens. He is also a composer, multidisciplinary artist, and owner and operator of Serif of Nottingham Editions, a Hamilton-based small press. Through Serif of Nottingham and other small presses, Barwin has also published numerous chapbooks, broadsides, and pamphlets.
Barwin was born in 1964 in Northern Ireland. His family immigrated to Canada in the 1970s. In 1985, Barwin graduated from York University with a BFA in music and a BA in creative writing. He went on to complete a PhD in music composition at SUNY Buffalo.
Barwin has taught creative writing at several colleges and universities, including King’s University College (Western University), McMaster University, and Mohawk College. He has also participated in writer in residence programs at Toronto Public Library, Western University, London Public Library, McMaster University, Hamilton Public Library, Wilfrid Laurier University, and others. In addition, Barwin has taught creative writing to at-risk youth through Hamilton’s ArtForms program.
Barwin’s novel Yiddish for Pirates was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The novel also won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, and the Hamilton Literary Award. Barwin is also a four-time recipient of the Hamilton Book of the Year award and a co-winner of the bpNichol Chapbook Award.
Barwin lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
Maurice Baring, poet, essayist, literary critic, and novelist, was born in London on 27 April 1874. He was educated at Eaton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He is credited with introducing Chekhov's work to the West. He died in Beauley, Inverness-shire, on 14 December 1845.
John Barclay (1898-1966) was active in the Peace Pledge Union in the late 1930s; he was one of the official sponsors of the Union in 1939. The photographs are of Peace Pledge Union activities and participants in 1937-1938 including John Barclay, Dick Sheppard, Maurice Rowntree, Vera Brittain, J. Middleton Murry, Max Plowman and others. Barclay's son, Anthony, has written a brief memoir of his father. It is located in the master file.
James Bannerman is a pseudonym of John Charles Kirkpatrick McNaught, author, critic, and broadcaster. He was born on 23 March 1902 in Toronto, Ontario, and educated at Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto. He also used the following pseudonyms: George Austen, Mark Carter, Peter Davidson, Robert Elliott, Pierre Lousanne, and Lajos Dohanyi Lajos.
Bannerman is probably best known for his introduction to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday radio broadcasts from the 1950s to 1970. He wrote many broadcast scripts and also contributed articles to Canadian Home Journal, Maclean's, Mademoiselle, Mayfair and other magazines.
Nelson Ball, poet, publisher and book seller, was born in Clinton, Ontario in 1942. He established Weed/Flower Press in 1965 in order to publish Canadian and American poets. He is also the author of several collections of poetry, including Waterpipes and Moonlight (Weed/flower Press, 1969), Force Movements (Ganglia Press, 1969) and The Pre-Linguistic Heights (Coach House Press, 1970). Ball died in Brantford on 16 August 2019.
Oliver Ridsdale Baldwin, 2nd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, was born in 1899. An author and journalist, he was sometime Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for War and served as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Leeward Islands, 1948-1950. He was also a Member of Parliament representing Dudley in 1929-1931 and Paisley 1945-1947. He died in 1958 and was succeeded by his brother.
Born on 18 March 1905, Alfred Goldsworthy Bailey was an historian, poet, and university administrator. In 1934 he graduated with a doctorate from the University of Toronto with a specialization in ethno-history and aboriginal culture. He taught history at the University of New Brunswick from 1938 to 1970. At UNB he was Dean of Arts from 1946 to 1964, Honorary Librarian and Chief Executive Officer of the Library from 1946 to 1959, and Vice-President Academic from 1965 to 1970. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1951 and an officer of the Order of Canada in 1978. In addition to his scholarly work, he was a founder of the Fiddlehead and published six books of verse between 1927 and 1996. He died on 21 April 1997.
C.T. Atkinson held the rank of Captain with the Oxford University Officers Training Corps, and served in the Seventh Division which was created in the autumn of 1914, and ceased to exist in the winter of 1918, after its demobilization in December. Its units were assembled from home stations, from Gibralter, Malta, Egypt and included the regulars remaining in England after the departure for France of the Sixth Division in 1907. In 1926, C.T. Atkinson undertook the writing of the history of the Seventh Division, which was published in 1927, under the title The Seventh Division 1914-1918. by John Murray.
Sidney Aster is a Canadian historian and biographer. Born in Montreal in 1942, he completed a BA and MA in History and Political Science at McGill University before moving to England in 1964 to pursue a Ph.D. in international history at the London School of Economics and Political Studies. He stayed in England for a total of 12 years before moving back to Canada in 1976 to take up a position with the University of Toronto's Department of History.
In addition to his widespread teaching interests in early modern and modern history, he has researched and published extensively on appeasement and revisionism in the run-up to the Second World War. He has written or assisted with significant biographical treatments of Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Lord (Sir Arthur) Salter, V.V. Tilea, A.P. Young, Sir William Seeds, and Sir Anthony Eden, among others.
H.R.H. Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert was born on 1 May 1850, the seventh child of Queen Victoria. He was created Duke of Connaught and Strathearn on 24 May 1874. From 1911 to 1916 he served as Governor-General of Canada.
H.R.H. Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert was born on 1 May 1850, the seventh child of Queen Victoria. He was created Duke of Connaught and Strathearn on 24 May 1874. From 1911 to 1916 he served as Governor-General of Canada.
Leendert ("Alex" or "Lex") Aronson was born in Amsterdam on 20 December 1934. In 1943, Aronson was deported together with his mother, Sara van Straten-Cohen, to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Although over two thirds of the Dutch Jews deported to Bergen-Belsen did not remain alive at the end of the war, Aronson and his mother survived.
Upon his return to Amsterdam, Aronson attended the Jewish Secondary School from 1948 to 1951. In 1952 he received a certificate in chiropody and also studied nursing at the Jewish Hospital in London. He emigrated to Israel in 1955 and spent most of the next six years traveling in India, The Middle East, Europe and Africa before returning to Amsterdam in 1962. In 1964 Aronson married Elisabeth van Dieigen, and their son Alwin was born the same year. He worked for The Red Cross during the latter part of the 1960s in Africa, returning to Holland in 1970, but returned to India at the end of the year. In August 1974, he traveled to Kurdistan where he was arrested in March 1975 by the Iraqis on charges of spying for Israel. On 15 March 1976, the Iraqi Embassy admitted that Aronson had been executed in Baghdad although the exact date of his death was never revealed. In April 1976 his mother was able to obtain his remains, and Aronson was buried on 26 May 1976 in the Jewish Cemetery in Muiderberg, Holland.
Alan Mendelson, co-editor of From Bergen-Belsen to Baghdad : The Letters of Alex Aronson, was a student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem when he met Aronson in 1962. They traveled together, and Aronson later visited Mendelson, who is Alwin's godfather, in 1970 when the editor was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. Their last meeting took place in the spring of 1974 when Mendelson visited Aronson in Holland. Alan Mendelson was a professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University.
