A.J. Casson For King and Country Scrolls
Municipality/Province: Toronto, ON
Memorial number: 35014-034
Type: Honour Roll
Alfred Joseph Casson was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 17 May 1898. At age 15 his father sent him to work as an apprentice at a Hamilton lithography company. By 1919, Casson worked for Franklin Carmichael at a commercial art company as a commercial designer, producing labels and advertisements. Seven years later, Casson took a management position with Sampson-Matthews, a prominent midtown Toronto lithography and commercial art company.
During the Second World War, Sampson-Matthews, Casson and other Group of Seven artist alumni, including A.Y. Jackson, wanted to support the war effort, but were too old to serve. Jackson served as an official war artist during the First World War and it was his idea of a partnership between Sampson-Matthews and the National Gallery, to distribute thousands of silk screen prints of Canadian paintings to army camps that housed troops in Canada as well those serving overseas. It was funded by the Department of National Defence, National Gallery and corporate sponsors. Jackson, Casson and Sampson-Matthews executives viewed the plan as a morale booster and a way of making Canadian art widely available. The company produced 7,500 prints. After the war ended, Sampson-Matthews expanded its art program, targeting schools and companies.
Casson also created wartime commercial art, including Maclean’s covers and posters promoting war bonds. His half-brother, John Earnest Casson served in the First World War and arrived in France April 1918. On 8 August, he was hit by shrapnel in the head, right arm and left shoulder. John was unconscious for three days. After recovering in the hospital overseas, he was medically unfit for service and discharged on 25 March 1919 in Toronto. Casson won first prize with a poster that was part of the 1st Victory Loan campaign launched in June 1941 with the theme "Help Finish the Job!" The poster features an heraldic lion and a maple leaf in the foreground, and images of factories, a tank, and a warplane in the background.
After the Second World War, Casson designed an honour scroll template to be filled with Veterans’ names from schools, churches and other organizations. Sampson-Matthews printed the scrolls in large numbers. Casson filled in the names of Veterans on some, while others were filled in by Sampson-Matthews’ calligraphers. His scroll is beautifully designed, with Casson’s name or initials near the bottom. Some organizations also ordered a scroll to honour their First World War Veterans. It’s unclear how the scrolls were distributed, but there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of Alfred Joseph Casson’s First and Second World War scrolls hanging in schools, churches, legions and other community spaces across Canada.
Note
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