Identification Tag

Credit LineGift of the Tingley family, 2018.

Object number2018.016.033

Label TextMerle Tingley enlisted in April of 1942 in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. In a diary entry about his enlistement, he wrote: “I started off with vim and vigor / to join the army and pull a trigger.” That’s not what happened: “I was a terrible soldier – the army thought they would be safer if they took away my gun and gave me a pencil.” Tingley earned the rank of Sergeant in July 1943. At that time, he worked as drafter and artist with the Department of Munitions and Supply. He then moved to the Directorate of Electrical and Communications Design to do the same work. By 1944, he was a cartoonist for the army's "Khaki" magazine.

NameTag, Identification