The Journal · The Brantford Club
Rain at the Unveiling: The Bell Memorial, October 24, 1917
The Bell Memorial in Brantford was unveiled at noon on Wednesday, October 24, 1917 by the Governor General, the Duke of Devonshire, with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell present. Its sculptor was Walter S. Allward of Toronto, chosen unanimously from nine competing models judged blind, and he went on to carve the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
F. Douglas Reville’s 1920 History of the County of Brant preserves the whole story with the weather included, and this entry follows his account: an international competition judged by number rather than name, a rival’s surrender on sight, a symbolism with no telephone in it anywhere, and a rainy October Wednesday with a civic luncheon at the Kerby House.
Who designed the Bell Memorial in Brantford?
The Bell Memorial was designed by Walter S. Allward of Toronto, and the choosing of him was its own drama. Nine models were submitted from Canada, Europe, and the United States, and the judges, Sir B. E. Walker of Toronto, Sir G. C. Gibbons of London, and Senator Davis of New York, were never given the competitors’ names: they judged the models by numbers alone, and their award was unanimous. Reville records the moment the contest effectively ended, when an American competitor saw Allward’s model unpacked in the display room before his own.
“There is no use my taking out my model for nothing can win against that.”
A competing sculptor, as F. D. Reville records, 1920
A monument with no telephone in it
Allward’s design contains, in Reville’s words, not “even the slightest indication of the mechanical part of the telephone.” The theme he chose was “the annihilation of space”: a reclining figure of a man in deep thought, the figure of Inspiration hovering above him, and three figures speeding through the air at the panel’s far end, the messengers of Knowledge, Joy and Sorrow, with a sending figure and a receiving figure in bronze at either side. Reville’s verdict was that Allward “lavished loving creative power for the best part of many years upon his task,” and Allward’s next great commission proved the point: the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France.
- The competition
- Nine models from Canada, Europe, and the United States, judged blind by number
- The Association
- The Bell Memorial Association, incorporated by special act of the Legislature, under the patronage of the Prince of Wales
- October 24, 1917
- Unveiled at noon by the Duke of Devonshire, Governor General, with Dr. Bell present; rain shortened the program at the station
- The sculptor’s next work
- The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, France
The day itself
The rain got into the record because Reville was honest and it was October. The Duke of Devonshire was met at the station by Mayor Bowlby, Dr. Bell, aldermen, and citizens, with a company of the 38th Rifles and returned soldiers as guard of honour; the weather cut the station ceremony short. After the unveiling there was a civic luncheon at the Kerby House, the hotel that kept turning up whenever Brantford had an occasion. A city in the middle of the Great War stopped at noon on a Wednesday to honour a living inventor, in the rain, and wrote all of it down.
Nine sculptors entered; one look at the model settled eight of them.
Questions the record answers
Who unveiled the Bell Memorial?
The Duke of Devonshire, then Governor General of Canada, at noon on Wednesday, October 24, 1917, with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell himself present and a guard of honour from the 38th Rifles and returned soldiers.
What does the Bell Memorial depict?
Allward’s theme was the annihilation of space: a thinking figure with Inspiration above him, the messengers Knowledge, Joy and Sorrow speeding through the air, and figures sending and receiving at either side, with no mechanical telephone shown anywhere.
Did Walter Allward design anything else famous?
Yes. After the Bell Memorial, Allward carved the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France. Brantford saw the hand before the world did.
Sources: F. D. Reville, History of the County of Brant (1920), for the competition, the judges, the symbolism, the Association, and the unveiling day; the City of Brantford’s records for the memorial’s standing today.
The city’s claim on the telephone itself is set out in why Brantford is called the Telephone City.
