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George Campbell Tinning

A black and white photograph professional headshot of a 40 year-old man with black-framed glasses staring at the camera with a slight smile.

collection of the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery

George Campbell Tinning, c. 1950

Canadian war artist Campbell Tinning was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1910. He studied art at Regina College and at the Art Students’ League in New York. In 1941, he joined the Reserves and obtained permission to paint at the RCAF Base in Trenton, Ontario. This attributed to his appointment as a War Artist in the Historical Section of the Canadian Army in June 1942.

He underwent two surgeries for a serious sinus problem in 1944 and again in 1945. He was treated at No. 1 Canadian General Hospital in Taplow, England. Tinning produced watercolours both inside the wards and on the grounds of what had been the Cliveden Estate before it was repurposed as a hospital. One of these paintings is of a Royal Canadian Air Force officer working on an embroidery project, and the title of the watercolour calls this “handicraft therapy”