Bruce Wilbur Beatty was born on July 6, 1922, in Melfort, Sask. He was from an early age passionately interested in medals and military insignia, his father having served in Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) during the First World War. Beatty joined the RCAF in 1941 and trained as an air observer. After the war, he decided to make the air force his career and re-mustered to graphic artist in 1948.

By 1958, about 56,000 men and women were wearing air force blue. Beatty was one of a group of RCAF public affairs officers, photographers and graphic artists who told the story to the Canadian public, in words, photographs and graphic art. After designing the Order of Canada, Beatty’s next assignment was to design the Canadian Centennial Medal, established to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967.

When the RCAF, Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Navy were unified in 1968, Beatty spent the next few years redesigning a wide variety of squadron crests, army badges and other insignia. After retiring from the Canadian Forces in 1970, he remained in uniform with the army cadets. He was soon commissioned as a captain and served seven years with the cadet corps of Ottawa’s 30 Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. Hired by the Chancellery of Honours in 1972, his first decade there was very busy. His first year he designed Canada’s new gallantry decorations: the Medal of Bravery, the Star of Courage and the Cross of Valour.

A staunch monarchist, Beatty met the Queen many times during her visits to Canada. During one royal visit it was decided that Prince Philip’s medals needed new ribbons, so Beatty took them home and did the job. He also designed every royal visit lapel pin for 59 years, starting in 1951 when the then Princess Elizabeth visited Canada for the first time, a year before she acceded to the throne. Gordon Macpherson, Niagara Herald Extraordinary of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, knew Beatty since the 1960s. “Bruce was an outstanding artist and there was no one, in my opinion, that comes even close to his expertise as a designer of medals and decorations,” he said. But as a loyal subject, Beatty did his best to make sure his sovereign had her proper place on his medals. A founding member of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada, he was made a fellow of the society in 1977.

Honours

• 1990 Member of the Order of Canada
• 1982 Grant of Arms, College of Arms, London
• 1977 Fellow of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada