James Blomfield

James Jervis Blomfield (1879-1951) was an English-born Canadian artist and designer. He is best known for his design of the coat of arms of Vancouver and as a pioneer in the field of stained glass art in Canada, with an extensive body of works completed in British Columbia and Ontario, including the Beechwood Cemetery Mausoleum in Ottawa, Canada's national cemetery. He lived in Toronto for the last 30 years of his life and painted many watercolours of the city. In 1927, he said, "I hope to be known as the discoverer of Toronto."

Background He was born James Alfred Bloomfield in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. The middle name he added from his mother's maiden name later in life when he also dropped the second 'o' in Bloomfield. He was born deaf and worked for a period of time as a junior draftsman. before moving with his family to Canada, to Calgary, Alberta in 1887. In Calgary, he studied painting and engraving (1887, 1889). In Vancouver, Blomfield attracted the attention of Lord Aberdeen who paid for his art education in England and Belgium.

Foundations & work On his return to Canada, his career flourished with such commissions as Holy Trinity Cathedral, New Westminster, St. Paul's Anglican Church in Vancouver, Gabriola, the home of Benjamin Tingley,

Together with Robert McKay Fripp, S.M. Everleigh, and A. Woodroffe, in 1900 he co-founded the Arts and Crafts Association of Vancouver, which later became the Studio Club (1904) and finally the British Columbia Society of Fine Arts (1908). in Hamilton, Ontario; the stained glass windows of the mausoleum were designed by Blomfield in the 1920s. He was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists.