Lillian Beech

The Society’s records

Everything the Society’s own records say of Lillian Beech: the offices held, the standings conferred, and the awards won. Where the records are silent, so is this part of the page.

In memoriam · 10 July 1990

Died at Albright Manor, Beamsville, aged 88; the funeral was at the Merritt Funeral Home, Smithville, on 13 July 1990, with burial in St. Luke's Cemetery. The clipping in the Society's papers is marked "Hamilton Leather Guild".

From Area Obituaries: Lillian Moyer Beech.

Also recorded as George Beech, K. Beech, Lilian Beech, Lillian Beach, Mrs. George Beech, Mrs. K. Beech

Branch

Hamilton · recorded holding office in 1963

Certification

• Associate of the CSCL 1966

Muriel McKnight's “Who's Who in Leathercraft” column honoured her in the summer of 1985 on behalf of the Society and the Hamilton Leathercraft Guild. She was among the first chartered members when the Hamilton Guild was formed in 1956 and a member in good standing from that date. She studied leathercraft at Danforth Collegiate, Toronto, in 1953 under Kay Tokaryk (among the techniques she learned there was achieving a grey dye with ferrous sulphate), and became an accomplished glove maker, learning that from Mrs. Campbell. She served on the Society's Executive Council for several years and as Membership Convenor of the Hamilton Guild, and was its President. The Society’s own profile of her says she held that office when the Society “marked its 10th anniversary at the Scottish Rite in Hamilton”; the Scottish Rite meeting was the 1966 Annual, held in the Guild’s own tenth-anniversary year, while the Society’s tenth anniversary, in 1960, was kept at WoodGreen Centre, Toronto. She taught at Burlington Arena from 1954 for several years and gave classes and private glove-making lessons at home, demonstrated at Hamilton Guild meetings and workshops and at the Society's Annuals, and was a faithful hand at the Guild's C.N.E. booth. She was President of the Hamilton Branch for 1967-68, the year the Society's newsletter reported her as the branch's new chairman.

From Summer 1985, page 6; History of the Hamilton Leathercraft Guild, 1956–2002: the Guild’s own typescript, set out in full on the Hamilton branch history page; List of Associates and Fellows, c. 1985; Spring 1967, page 12; and Spring 1967, page 8.

Served the Society as

• Council 1960
• Recording Secretary 1961
• Hamilton Branch Secretary 1963–1980
• Hamilton Branch Chairman 1967
• Hamilton Branch President 1967
• Hamilton Branch Corresponding Secretary 1977

Honours

• Perfect Attendance Recognition 1966
  Honored at the Hamilton Branch's 10th Anniversary banquet, November 1966, for her perfect attendance record over the branch's first ten years; presented with a leather pen stand for her service.

Awards

• Craftsman Ribbon 1978
• Leather '76 Craftsman Award 1976

Demonstrations given

• Braided Belts 1969
  19th Annual

  From Spring 1969, page 2.

Where this comes from

• Spring 1960
• Summer 1961
• Spring 1963
• Spring 1964
• Spring 1967
• Summer 1976
• Summer 1978
• Summer 1985
• Area Obituaries: Lillian Moyer Beech
• 27th Annual Meeting 1977: programme, The Victorian Inn, Stratford
• 31st Annual Meeting 1981: programme, Beacon Motor Inn, Jordan Station (Vineland)
• List of Associates and Fellows, c. 1985
• History of the Hamilton Leathercraft Guild, 1956–2002: the Guild’s own typescript, set out in full on the Hamilton branch history page
• Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting 1978: programme, hosted by Toronto Branch