BARCLAY, Arthur James (1880-1971) was born in Montrose, Scotland on 6 September 1880 and served a four year apprenticeship in the office of John Sim, a local architect there, between 1895 and 1899. He then worked as chief assistant in the office of A.M. MacKenzie & Son, London and Aberdeen (1895-1905), with Leslie Owen, Dundee (1905-06), and then as assistant to Matear & Simon, Liverpool (1906-07). After emigrating to Canada in early 1908 he opened his own office in Toronto with a branch office in Goderich, Ont., where he succeeded in obtaining several commissions, and he later won the competition for the Goderich Town Hall in 1911. For unexplained reasons he left Toronto in June 1911 and decided to accept an appointment as a staff architect with the Dept. of Public Works in Ottawa, working under the supervision of David Ewart (C.R., xxv, 7 June 1911, 55). He remained there until December 1936 when he resigned from the Ontario Association of Architects due to illness. Barclay died in Ottawa, Ont. on 4 September 1971 (obituary Ottawa Journal, 7 Sept. 1971, 35; biog. R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, i, 108).
GODERICH, ONT., Victoria Public School, Gibbons Street, 1909; demol. 1949 (C.R., xxiii, 25 Aug. 1909, 20, t.c., and xxiv, 5 Jan. 1910, 36-7, illus. & descrip.; J.G. Hodgins, Schools and Colleges in Ontario 1792-1910, i, 265, illus.)
TORONTO, ONT., major addition to High Park Baptist Church, Hewitt Avenue, 1909-10 (Jubilate Deo - High Park Baptist Church 1908-1958, 5)
GODERICH, ONT., Masonic Temple, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 5 Jan. 1910, 22)
GODERICH, ONT., rebuilding of factory for Goderich Organ Co., 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 19 Oct. 1910, 28)
GODERICH, ONT., Town Hall & Fire Hall, 1911 (London Free Press, 17 July 1911, 2)