Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Jack Akroyd (Born Halifax, Yorks, UK, 1921; died Vancouver, BC, Canada, March 4, 1996) began working as a railroad engineering apprentice in England in the 1930s. Soon after the start of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force and spent six years as an aircraft mechanic. He volunteered for overseas service and was sent to Canada.
At wars end, and once again a civilian, Akroyd tried to enrol in art school. All the places were taken by other ex-servicemen, so Akroyd went back to work in the Locomotive works of the Great Western Railway and took evening art classes at a local college.
In the years following the war, governments of Commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada advertised in the United Kingdom for immigrants with suitable trades. Akroyd arrived in Ontario in the depths of winter and began work as a machinist in the CNR roundhouse at Capreol. After eighteen months in the job, Akroyd quit to enrol in the Ontario College of Art in Toronto in 1949. In 1953, upon graduation, he moved to the West Coast where he worked at many things, including caretaker at a Jasper resort hotel. In his spare time and between labouring jobs, Akroyd sketched and painted. Stability came with a fulltime job as a draftsman with a Vancouver consulting engineering firm.
Akroyd is quoted as saying The most exciting thing I did in those years was to visit Japan, a country that I knew very little about. It was during his time in Japan that Akroyd took up photography.
In 1961, Akroyd decided to declare himself a freelance artist and quit the business world. He supported himself by helping local sculptures in their work: casting plaster molds and manufacturing fibreglass figurines; constructing armatures and building scale models. It was during this time that Akroyd supplemented his income by inspecting and repairing Kilns in the art classrooms of Vancouver.
Eventually, he began to support himself through his art works. His work is sought after throughout Canada.
Jack Akroyd died in Vancouver, B.C. on March 4, 1996.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Revised by BCANS Coordinator, March 30, 2011.