The Memorial
The making of the Memorial
News
of the commission reached the newspapers, prompting a firm of art bronze
founders to write offering to submit a design. By February 1926 Toronto
sculptor Frances Loring had been in touch with the benchers,
presumably had visited the Great
Library to look at the site, and had formulated her ideas about the
memorial's structure. In a letter of tender, she wrote: "The figure to
be sculpted in Italian marble not less than seven (7) feet high, to be
in full round, isolated from the marble panel at the back, standing on
a base of Bedford Stone about the same height as the wainscoating [sic]
in the room." A few months later Convocation authorized the committee to enter into a contract with Frances Loring,
who was to be paid $10,000 for her work. The contract was signed in September
1926, with an agreed completion date of January 1st 1928. Loring
had less than a year and a half to complete the project.
Preparations
for the memorial's installation began around the time Loring and Ardagh
signed the contract. Architect John Pearson discussed with Frances Loring
the required structural changes. The east wall of the Main Reading Room
of the Great Library, the site where the sculpture would be erected, was
at that time an external wall. To accommodate the memorial, a large window
would have to be removed and the opening bricked up. Plastering, painting,
and changes to the woodwork would also have to be done to prepare the
site for the installation of the sculpture and the pedestal on which it
would stand.
As the time to forward the names to be inscribed on the memorial tablet neared, efforts to finalize the list accelerated. Decisions had to be made about whether the list should be restricted to those who were killed on active service, or whether it should include the names of those who had died from natural causes or accidents while in military service. Ardagh and the committee decided on the latter option, including the name of a lawyer who had shot himself accidentally and that of another who died several years after the war following a productive career. For an unknown reason, the name of a soldier who had been shot by his father was left off the list.
Secretary Ardagh published a notice in the Toronto newspapers inviting people to
inspect the Honour Roll list in his office; fortunately, some papers printed
the entire list of names, sparing Ardagh hordes of visitors. A number
of people wrote letters or telephoned to provide new names. Ardagh verified
the information with the Department of Militia and Defence in Ottawa.
He gave the list to Frances Loring in late October 1927.
Meanwhile, Frances Loring was busy working on the clay model
of the memorial, which she estimated would be finished by mid-November
1927. She believed that the piece would be completed by the end of March
1928, which committee Chair McPherson thought 
"unduly
long." After the committee met in late December 1927, McPherson reminded
Loring that the contract required that the work be in place by the first
of January. His letter appears to have been an attempt to pressure the
sculptor: it expressed the committee's surprise "at the indefinite nature
of the statement made by you to me in reference to the completion," and
asked for her to state her intentions in writing immediately. "If any
additional time you may desire is regarded as reasonable by the Committee,"
McPherson continued, "an extension may be made, but it must be definite
and duly signed." If the committee did not think the extra time reasonable,
"I anticipate the Committee will immediately take such steps as may be
deemed necessary to assert the rights of the Law
Society."
Loring replied that the committee should come to the studio
after the middle of January to inspect and approve the clay model, after which
she would execute the plaster cast. She suggested that "they come before four-thirty
as the light is not good after that." Several members of the committee were
stricken with colds in January and could not get to Loring's studio, causing
additional delay. They finally managed to examine the clay model several times
and suggested modifications. At its January meeting the committee decided
that another contract with Frances Loring be executed extending the deadline
to mid-September. Loring telephoned McPherson in late January to urge the
committee to accept the plaster cast so that she could ship it on the steamer
sailing a week later. The new contract, dated January 31st, 1928,
absolved the Law Society of any responsibility for the delay and "Whereas
the Sculptor…has failed or made default…she will complete [s]aid Work[s] on
or before the fourteenth day of September, 1928." By mid-February the plaster
cast was on its way to Italy to be executed in Carrara Marble. Loring followed
a few months later to select the marble and to supervise the carving, which
proceeded slowly1. While she was out of
the country, architect John Pearson supervised the alterations to the Great
Library's east wall and the erection of the pedestal.
1 Rebecca Sisler,
The Girls (Toronto: Clarke Irwin, 1972), 42; C.
Boyanoski, Loring and Wyle: Sculptor's Legacy (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario,
1987), 35.
