George Henry Griffin was born in Uckfield, Sussex in 1898 and emigrated to Canada in 1911. In 1917 he enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and served in France. After being wounded, Griffin was discharged in 1919 and returned to Canada, where he enrolled at the Ontario College of Art. Later he studied at the Central Technical School under Owen Staples, Alfred Howel, amongst others. He also studied privately under painter Frederick S. Challener.
In 1926 he went to Britain and took classes at the Slade School of Art in London. Griffin then worked for various architects and made scale models, including the Montreal Sun Life Building, Hart House Soldier’s Tower, and St. James Cathedral War Memorial, Toronto. He also worked closely with Laurence Barraud on Grove Park Lodge, Muskoka, the Wood Estate (Glendon College, York University) and the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Griffin taught part-time at Central Technical School, but when Western Technical School opened, L.A.C. Panton asked him to join the staff full-time. Griffin became head of the Art Department in 1939 and remained there until retirement in 1963 (students included Harold Town, Walter Yarwood, Heather Cooper, Bud Fehly, Alan Fleming, Mac Houston).
Griffin exhibited extensively up to 1932, and showed at the National Gallery of Canada, Royal Canadian Academy, Ontario Society of Artists, Canadian National Exhibition, Robert Simpson Galleries, and Manor Richelieu, Quebec. Primarily a landscape painter, Griffin liked to sketch in the Spring and Fall in Caledon and Peel. His paintings are in the City of Toronto Archives, Windsor Art Gallery and private collections in Ontario, Quebec, New York and Michigan.
