RADFORD, John Alfred (1860-1940) enjoyed a successful career as an artist, furniture designer and architect who frequently exhibited his work at the annual exhibitions of the Ontario Society of Artists from 1890 to 1900. Born in Devonshire, Engl. he studied drawing at the South Kensington School of Art and emigrated to Canada before 1880. He was living and working in Montreal in 1880 when he was hand-picked by Balston Kenway to be his principal assistant in Kenway's Winnipeg office (Montreal Star, 30 March 1880, 2). Radford later worked in Port Arthur where he was employed as a draftsman by Robert J. Edwards and by E. Gillan, then moved to Toronto in 1886 to join the Toronto Cabinet Co. as design director. He found freelance work with architects in Toronto and Montreal, and collaborated with J.W. & E.C. Hopkins on the winning design for the Montreal Ice Palace in 1888. Radford practised in Toronto from 1890 to 1902, then moved to Vancouver and later became one of the leading landscape artists on the west coast. The Vancouver Sun frequently employed him to illustrate articles and prepare reviews of art exhibitions. Radford died there on 24 May 1940 (obit. & port.Vancouver Sun, 25 May 1940, 17; Province [Vancouver], 25 May 1940, 28; Telegram [Toronto], 8 June 1940, 13; biog. & port. W. Cochrane, Canadian Album: Men of Canada, 1891, i, 166). A photographic portrait of Radford, with biography on his early career in Toronto, was published in the Vancouver Sun, 27 Sept. 1939, 9.
(with J. W. & E.C. Hopkins) MONTREAL, QUE., Ice Palace, 1888 (Montreal Star, 11 Dec. 1888, 6, illus.; C.A.B., ii, Jan. 1889, 16)
TORONTO, ONT., Arlington Hotel, King Street West at John Street, 1890; demol. c. 1955 (Toronto World, 8 Aug. 1890, 2, descrip.)
TORONTO, ONT., The Forum, Yonge Street at Gerrard Street, commercial block with offices for Central Business College, 1890 (Illustrated Toronto, 1890, 129)
TORONTO, ONT., Opera House, Adelaide Street West, major addition and interior alterations for J.B. Sparrows, 1898; demol. (Toronto b.p. 223, 28 June 1898)
VANCOUVER, B.C., residence for John P. McConnell, West 12th Avenue at Maple Street, 1913 (C.R., xxvii, 26 March 1913, 71)
(with G.L. Southall) VANCOUVER, B.C., Wong Kung Har Tong Association Chinese School, East Pender Street, 1921 (Vancouver b.p. 1709, 1921; City of Vancouver, Heritage inventory Summary Report, 1986, 18, illus.)