MONUMENT UPDATE: NICHOLAS FLOOD DAVIN: An Artist of some renown

AS YOU STROLL THROUGH BEECHWOOD CEMETERY, one of the highlights is the Nicholas Flood Davin Monument. Members of the Conservative Party erected the monument in 1903 for their fellow MP after his death. It is a rather unique monument in both history and overall design.

The monument has one of very few busts found in the cemetery. The bust of Flood Davin has an interesting patina and almost appears to be tear stained. It’s a beautiful example of sculpture in the cemetery. What makes this bust even more interesting is the artist behind it. It was designed and carved in 1902 by artist Walter S. Allward.

Allward was a Canadian monumental sculptor best known for the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. He has been widely praised for his original sense of spatial composition, his mastery of the classical form and his brilliant craftsmanship. 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, he was elected an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy and in 1918, became a full academician. Once 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.

Allward’s true talent lays in his heroic monuments. These included the design work for the Boer War Memorial Fountain in Windsor, Ontario (1906), the South African War Memorial in Toronto (1910), The Baldwin-Lafontaine Monument on Parliament Hill in Ottawa (1914) and the Bell Memorial commemorating Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of telephone in Brantford, Ontario (1917). Allward had also completed design work on a memorial to King Edward VII but the onset of the World War I prevented its completion. 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, Ontario, Canada.

Allward has been described as probably Canada’s most important monumental sculptor of the 20th century