Contemporary Canadian war artist Gertrude Kearns is known for her evocative portraits of senior military leaders. She was embedded with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan in 2005-2006 but her portfolio includes earlier works on Somalia, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia.

Ms. Kearns eventually compiled her Afghan war art into an exhibit titled “The Art of Command: Portraits and Posters from Canada’s Afghan Mission.”
In 2008, she was commissioned to paint Tecumseh and Brock, the Shawnee Indian leader and British major-general who both fought and died in the War of 1812. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of Canada.

In 2000 Warrant Officer Stephen Thomas joined the 7th Toronto Regiment and in 2003/04, he completed his first tour in Afghanistan. In 2005, he saw the light and transferred to The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, later becoming a member of the regiment’s parachute company.

Thomas’ second deployment to Afghanistan occurred between July 2006 and March 2007, where he served as force protection. On October 3, 2006, in Kandahar then Corporal Thomas with three others, saved the lives of their fellow soldiers and local Afghan civilians by unloading ammunition from a disabled burning vehicle during a suicide bomber attack. For this action, he was awarded the Canadian Forces Medal of Bravery.

I encourage you to read the full citation and some of Warrant Thomas’ own recollections of the action which are on his profile page on our museum’s website.

In early 2021 Ms. Kearns created a large portrait of Warrant Thomas using mixed media in her easily recognizable style. You may recall having seen an image of this on the cover of the 2020-2021 Rifleman magazine.

In the fall of 2022, the artist contacted our museum and very generously offered to donate the portrait to us. After a few delays, Curator Shaun Kelly picked up the piece earlier this year from Ms. Kearns’ studio. He then arranged to have the portrait framed and covered with museum-grade plexiglass to protect it while on exhibit. On 6 June 2023 at the D-Day Dinner at Casa Loma, Ms Kearns and Warrant Thomas unveiled the donated portrait. On the following Thursday our museum team hung the portrait for exhibit in our 1945 to Present Room.

Our very grateful thanks to Ms. Kearns for her generous donation!