Edward “Ted” Zuber
Edward (“Ted”) Zuber was born on May 7, 1932, in Montreal, Canada.
In an interview with Veterans Affairs Canada’s Heroes Remember series, he noted the impact that growing up during the Second World War had on his generation, and on him personally. In particular, he recalled listening to stories of the war on the radio with his family. Zuber was 13 years old when WWII ended, and when the Korean War began a few short years later, he enlisted with the Royal Canadian Regiment, serving initially as a paratrooper and later as a sniper. He sustained shrapnel wounds after someone accidentally set off a grenade in a tunnel.
Zuber had carried a sketchbook with him during his time in Korea and later created a series of paintings depicting the experience. Canada did not have an official war artist for the Korean War, but Zuber’s paintings have filled that place in the war art heritage of Canada. In the 1990s, Zuber was the official war artist for Canada during the Gulf War.
Although Ted Zuber passed away in 2018, his legacy continues in the experiences, perspectives and insights he shared in interviews – notably with the Heroes Legacy Project of Veterans Affairs Canada and with the Memory Project now housed in the Canadian Encyclopedia – and through his art. The image featured on the Canada Remembers poster from Veterans Affairs Canada in 2018 commemorating the 65th anniversary of the start of the Korean War is “Freeze”, one of Zuber’s iconic works.
Zuber’s paintings are displayed in the Canadian War Museum and held in their collections, and his works on the Korean War provide a rich and vivid visual account of his experiences of the conflict that will continue to speak to Canadians for generations to come.
Sources:
Canadian Encyclopedia: Memory Project Archive: Edward Zuber. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mpsb-edward-zuber
Veterans Affairs Canada: Ted Zuber. https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/people-and-stories/ted-zuber
Veterans Affairs Canada: Edward “Ted” Zuber. https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/people-and-stories/faces-of-freedom/ted-zuber
Veterans Affairs Canada: A Brush with the Korean War – Hill 355. https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/information-for/educators/learning-modules/korean-war/brush-korean-war Note: 6 of Zuber’s paintings of the Korean War can be seen here.
Korean War - Key Events
April 25, 1951
Vastly outnumbered UN forces check the Chinese advance on Seoul at the Battles of Kapyong and the Imjin River. Two Commonwealth battalions—the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment—rebuff an entire Chinese division at Kapyong, and 4,000 men of the British 29th Brigade stage a successful delaying action against nearly 30,000 troops of the Chinese 63rd Army at the Imjin River. Some 650 men of the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment (the “Glorious Glosters”), engage in a Thermopylae-like stand against more than 10,000 Chinese infantry at Imjin. Although the overwhelming majority of the Glosters are killed or captured, their sacrifice allows UN forces to consolidate their lines around the South Korean capital.
These events are taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica
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