Abstract

Charles William Kelsey (1877-1975) trained in England and emigrated to Montreal in 1922. His stained glass designs can be found in England, Australia, the United States and in over sixty-eight churches in Canada. This thesis focuses on his war memorial windows commissioned between 1921 and 1956. Forty-two windows were studied: ten memorials for World War I, twenty-two memorials for World War II and ten memorials for both World Wars. Research is divided into three main areas: how Kelsey developed his reputation as a stained glass artist in Canada, the influences of the English stained glass revival of the late nineteenth century that are found in his designs and the choice of themes incorporated into his war memorial windows. Since his main patrons were the Anglican and United Churches, these windows also provide examples of the prevailing taste in religious memorials and demonstrate the variety of accepted and recognized symbols and subjects for war memorial windows.