Thomas Harold Beament

Harold Beament (also known as Thomas Harold Beament) (July 23, 1898 – May 13, 1984) was an Official Second World War artist with the Royal Canadian Navy and held the highest service rank of any Canadian artist in the Second World War – of Commander.

Career Beament was born in Ottawa and attended primary and secondary schools there. He enrolled at Osgoode Hall in Toronto in 1916. On account of World War I, Beament interrupted his studies to join the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR). He served first as an ordinary seaman, followed by a promotion to warrant officer. After the end of the war Beament returned to Osgoode Hall and graduated as a lawyer in 1922. In the same year he began to attend evening life classes with J.W. Beatty at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. Beament, continued to serve with the peacetime Naval Reserve and was promoted to the rank of officer in 1924. After he had moved to Montreal in 1926, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, Montreal RCNVR Division in 1930. One Inuit figure by Beament can be seen on a 1955 ten cent stamp that he designed for the Canadian Postal Service (now Canada Post). These lithograph prints of Inuit were used by the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal. Canadian War Museum; McMichael Canadian Art Collection; Art Gallery of Hamilton; Museum London, Ontario; and elsewhere. and a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art (1926-1928), the Arts Club, Montreal, and Pen & Pencil Club, Montreal. He was also an Honorary Member of the Chelsea Arts Club in London, England.

A fonds of his material is at Library and Archives Canada containing drawings made on his arctic trip.,