GILBERT, Edward James (1889-1976) was active in Regina and in Saskatoon, Sask. for nearly fifty years. Born in Petrolia, Ont. on 15 December 1889, he arrived in Regina in 1906 and began his training as an architect there in 1911. He does not appear to have received any formal university education in architecture. Instead, he may have been self-taught, because the Saskatchewan Archives Board in Regina holds a small collection of his early student drawings which were submitted to the International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, Penn. in 1908 (SAB Acc. P 8.4). This collection includes perspective drawings and details, and by 1915 it was evident that he had become an accomplished delineator and draftsman. He began his office training in Regina in 1911, working as an apprentice in the office of Sharon & Darrach, and for the firm of Tripp & Rowley. His training was interrupted during WWI when he served overseas with Canadian Expeditionary Forces in 1916-19. After his return to Canada, he joined the staff of the Provincial Architects Branch for the Province of Saskatchewan in August 1919, working under the direct supervision of his former employer Maurice Sharon, who had recently been appointed as Chief Architect of the Dept. of Public Works for Saskatchewan. Gilbert was appointed Acting Chief Architect of that department in 1926.
During his tenure, Gilbert also completed his own freelance work in architectural competitions. In late 1925 he was one of 50 architects and sculptors who submitted designs in the national competition for the Winnipeg War Cenotaph. The jury selected his design as one of 4 semi-finalists, and his proposal was “highly commended” (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 8 Jan. 1926, 6). That same year, he entered the competition for the War Cenotaph in Calgary, Alta. His elaborate watercolour drawings for his restrained design have survived, and are now held at the Saskatchewan Archives Board in Regina. In April 1930 he left Regina and moved to Saskatoon and formed a partnership with David Webster, a leading architect in that city (see list of works under Webster & Gilbert). When David Webster died in 1952, Gilbert continued the work of his firm with Webster’s son, John C. Webster, and then retired from the profession on 31 December 1957 (see biog. and list of works by Gilbert in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 3 April 1958, 3 & 6).
Gilbert had joined the Saskatchewan Assoc. of Architects in 1921, and he served three successive terms as President of the S.A.A. in 1944-45, in 1945-46, and 1946-47. He held a long-standing interest in the history and development of the Association, and for this, Gilbert retains a unique position in Western Canadian architecture. He was the author of the first biographical dictionary on architects in Saskatchewan entitled “Up The Years with the Saskatchewan Association of Architects”. When released in 1969, this booklet contained detailed biographies and lists of works of over 25 architects active in Saskatchewan from 1885 to 1950 and beyond. Gilbert died in Saskatoon on 2 January 1976 (obituary Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 3 Jan. 1976, 23; biog. Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 5 April 1930, 3; biog and port. inf. Saskatoon Association of Architects). A biography of Gilbert appears in his booklet, Up The Years With The S.A.A., 1969, page iii. A photographic portrait of Gilbert was published in the Star-Phoenix [Saskatoon], 18 Nov. 1937, 13.
E.J. GILBERT
(with F.H. Portnall) SASKATOON, SASK., Medical College at the University of Saskatchewan, 1945-46 (C.R., lviii, Oct. 1945, 132; Early Domestic Architecture in Regina, 1982, 27, illus.)
COMPETITIONS
REGINA, SASK., WW1 War Memorial Cenotaph, Victoria Park, 1926. E.J. Glbert was one of 51 architects and artists who submitted a design in this national competition (Morning Leader [Regina], 9 Feb. 1926, 1, full list of competitors). The winner was Robert G. Heughan of Montreal.