SAUNDERS, Dyce Chalmers (1899-1991) was born in Toronto on 5 June 1899 and attended Upper Canada College in Toronto (in 1908-17), and Royal Military College in Kingston in 1917-18. After his return to Toronto he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture at the Univ. of Toronto in January 1919, but left within six months in June of that year without graduating. By January 1921 he had joined the office of Sproatt & Rolph, a leading firm in Toronto, and served his apprenticeship with them, at first as a student, and then as draftsman, until September 1923. He left Canada and moved to England where he enrolled in the Architectural Association in London, and studied architecture there from 1923 to 1926. While in England, he was accepted as an Associate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and then returned to Toronto in 1926 and joined Douglas E. Kertland as an assistant (1926-27). Saunders opened his own office in 1928 and executed a number of Georgian Revival designs for houses in the Rosedale and Forest Hill neighbourhoods of Toronto. In 1934 he formed a partnership with Jack Ryrie (1903-1988), another young Toronto architect who had been educated at the Fontainbleau School of Fine Art in France. Together, they concentrated on residential commissions, most often executed in a conservative Georgian style. Their largest project was an institutional design for a major addition to Osgoode Hall at Toronto (1937-38). The partnership ended in 1940 at the outbreak of WWII, but no references have been found to the work of Saunders after 1945. In 1960 he was recorded as a staff architect with the firm of S.B. Coon & Son, and he later retired from the O.A.A. in December 1969 (inf. Royal Inst. of British Architects, London; inf. Ontario Assoc. of Architects, Toronto). A small collection of architectural drawings produced by the firm of Saunders & Ryrie is now held at the Ontario Archives (OA, Architectural Drawings, Ryrie Coll.). Saunders died in Toronto in 1991 and was interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Dyce SAUNDERS (works in Toronto unless noted)
ORIOLE PARKWAY, residence for Dr. Edward A. Morgan, 1927 (C.H.G., iv, June 1928, 29, illus.; vi, Nov. 1929, 42, illus.; Const., xxi, July 1928, 243, illus. & descrip.; R.A.I.C. Journal, v, July 1928, 251, 259, illus.; vi, March 1929, 95, 101)
OAKVILLE, ONT., residence for E.V. Brown, on the grounds of Appleby College, Lakeshore Road West, 1929-30 (C.H.G., vii, Oct. 1930, 54-5, illus.; Const., xxv, May 1932, 102-05, illus. & descrip.)
AURORA, ONT., Roman Catholic convent for the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine, north of St. Andrews College, 1930-31 (Toronto Star, 21 Nov. 1930, 33)
SHARON, ONT, residence for W.R. Osler, 1930 (R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, March 1931, 79, descrip.; C.H.G., viii, March 1931, 98, illus.)
INGLEWOOD DRIVE, major alterations to residence for Mrs. Rennie C. Trimble, 1930 (R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, March 1931, 80, descrip.)
BERNARD AVENUE, residence for Homer R. Smith, 1930 (R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, March 1931, 79, descrip.; C.H.G., viii, March 1931, 94, illus.; April 1931, 36-7, illus.)
MARKDALE AVENUE, residence for Harold C.F. Mockridge, 1933 (R.A.I.C. Journal, x, March 1933, 54; C.H.G., x, June 1933, 36-7, illus.)
TEDDINGTON PARK AVENUE, residence for R. Douglas Torrance, 1932 (R.A.I.C. Journal, x, March 1933, 55; C.H.G., xi, Oct.-Nov. 1934, 19, illus.)
SAUNDERS & RYRIE (works in Toronto unless noted)
SOUTH DRIVE, at Glen Road, residence for Wilmot D. Mathews, 1934 (Toronto b.p. 39902; 30 May 1934; C.H.G., xiv, April 1937, 22-3, illus.; R.A.I.C. Journal, xiv, June 1937, 109, illus.)
AVONDALE ROAD, residence for Sir James W. Woods, 1935 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xii, April 1935, 56, illus.)
AVONDALE ROAD, residence for James W. Walker, 1934-35; demol. 2000 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xv, Sept. 1938, 200, illus.; xvi, May 1939, 106, illus.; C.H.G., xvi, Aug. 1939, 24, illus.; dwgs. OA, Ryrie Coll.)
THORNHILL, ONT., residence for Henry C. Lefroy, 1935 (C.H.G., xii, Dec. 1935, 39, illus.)
GEORGETOWN, ONT., residence for Mrs. H.A. Staunton, 1935 (dwgs. OA, Ryrie Coll.)
AUSTIN TERRACE, residence for Col. John B. MacLean, 1936 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xiv, May 1937, 87, illus.)
DUNLOE ROAD, residence for J. Grant Glassco, 1936 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xiv, Feb. 1937, 22, 24; March 1937, 43, 45, illus.; C.H.G., xiv, March 1937, 22-3, illus.)
THORNWOOD ROAD, addition to residence for Glyn Osler, 1936 (C.H.G., xiv, Jan.-Feb. 1937, 36, illus.)
LAWTON BOULEVARD, residence for the architect Dyce Saunders, 1937 (C.H.G., xiv, Nov. 1937, 40-1, illus.)
OSGOODE HALL, Queen Street West at University Avenue, major addition for the Law Society of Upper Canada, 1937-38 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xiii, Dec. 1936, 232, xiv, Sept. 1937, 196; Montreal Daily Star, 2 March 1939, 21; E. Arthur, The Honourable Society of Osgoode Hall, 1952, 57)
THORNWOOD ROAD, residence for Stanley S. Mills, 1937 (C.H.G., xv, Jan.-Feb. 1938, 33, illus.; dwgs. OA, Ryrie Coll.)
RICHVIEW AVENUE, at Ardmore Road, residence for Beverly Matthews, 1938 (C.R., li, 26 Jan. 1938, 39)
GEORGIAN BAY COUNTRY CLUB, Penetang Point, near Midland, Ontario, with clubhouse, bungalows, dock, boathouse, children's nursery, and other facilities, 1938 (Financial Post [Toronto], 14 May 1938, 13)
GUELPH, ONT., major addition to Sterling Rubber Co., Waterloo Avenue, 1938-39 (C.R., li, 9 Nov. 1938, 29)
DUNVEGAN ROAD, residence for Bethune L. Smith, 1939 (C.H.G., xvi, March 1939, 26-7, illus.; R.A.I.C. Journal, xvi, Dec. 1939, 260-1, illus.)
ROSE PARK DRIVE, near Heath Street East, residence for Dr. Douglas Tanner, 1940 (dwgs. OA, Ryrie Coll. )