Internationally renowned Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh was born December 23, 1908.
 After years as a refugee from the Armenian massacres of 1915, Karsh eventually made his way to Canada in 1925. 

On the stormy New Year’s Eve of 1925, the liner Versailles reached Halifax from Beirut. After a voyage of twenty-nine days, her most excited passenger in the steerage class must have been a seventeen-year-old Armenian boy who spoke little French, and less English. I was that boy.

My first glimpse of the New World on a steely cold, sunny winter day was the Halifax wharf, covered with snow. I could not yet begin to imagine the infinite promise of this new land. For the moment, it was enough to find myself safe, the massacres, torture, and heartbreak of Armenia behind me. I had no money and little schooling, but I had an uncle, my mother’s brother, who was waiting for me and recognized me from a crude family snapshot as I stepped from the gangplank. George Nakash, whom I had not seen before, sponsored me as an immigrant, guaranteed that I would not be a “public charge,” and traveled all the way from his home in Sherbrooke, Quebec, for our meeting — the first of his many great kindnesses.
A Brief Biography – Yousuf Karsh

Karsh’s photographs would be featured on numerous stamps from Isle of Man, Jersey, UK and Canada over the decades, culminating in a 3 stamp tribute to his work in 2008 on the 100th anniversary of his birth. 

Audrey Hepburn
Winston Churchill
Yousuf Karsh – Self Portrait
From the Birth Centenary of Yousuf Karsh (portrait photo) series
Released by Canada Post in 2008 
Designer: Hélène L’Heureux