Caledon Town Crier Andrew Welch rings out final cry after serving in the role for 15 years

By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

If you've ever attended an event in Caledon, whether it was a tree lighting, Hike for Bethell Hospice, a Santa Claus parade, or the Walk of Fame, you may have heard the dulcet tones of Caledon Town Crier Andrew Welch.

Welch has been Caledon's town crier since 2011, giving his very first cry at the Alton Mill Fire and Ice Festival.

And now, in a full circle moment, on January 31 at the 16th annual Fire and Ice festival, Welch has given his last cry as the official town crier of Caledon.

Have no fear, you'll still see his brightly coloured regalia, or hear him, around town, just not in his official position.

Welch is pursuing numerous opportunities in his life and, needing more flexibility, has decided to step down as Caledon's town crier.

Welch is pursuing work at the University of Waterloo in ecological philosophy, providing lectures.

Over the years, Welch has published numerous books, his first titled ​​The Value Crisis, which discusses how “​​unprecedented dominance of numbers and number-based values in our world has relegated our time-honoured human values to the wayside.”

His second book, published in 2022, is titled Our Second Chance and is a sequel to the first.

Welch is also now the chair of the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome, a non-governmental organization dedicated to debate and action on global issues.

Over the past 15 years, Welch has been extremely busy not just as an established author, but as Town Crier for the Town of Orangeville in Dufferin County, the Town of Erin in Wellington County, and for the cities of Brampton and Mississauga.

When Welch set out to become the town crier for Caledon in 2011, he says he went into it partially for the writing aspect, being able to twist and turn words to create the perfect cry for each occasion.

Reflecting on his first appearance, sometimes it appears that the calling comes for you and not the other way around.

In 2010, Welch was reading Charles Dickens in a pub, and the entire crowd stopped to listen.

An onlooker turned to Welch and said, “You should be a town crier!”

At the time, Orangeville had a town crier, but Caledon did not.

Auditioning for the role, Welch was brought into a hockey arena to show off his “cry” for a panel of judges.

“I delivered that proclamation, and they said, ‘Great, well, we'll score you against the other candidates. There are none, so I guess you're okay,” Welch retells the story, laughing.

Upon Welch's appointment, he says it all then came together quite quickly, including a mad dash to have his regalia ready for his first cry.

Although he is now well known for his current livery, this was not his original outfit.

Welch initially borrowed pieces from local theatre contacts, added a few more from his own collection, may or may not have taken a small handbell from the local school, and with a winter coat of his wife's, created something for his first few events.

Unbeknownst to him, criers usually have a summer and a winter outfit, and Welch's original outfit was made entirely of wool, earning him a few laughs from other criers at a gathering set in the warmer months.

After his first thrown-together outfit, Welch took the time and care to establish the two well-known pieces we know today, a winter and summer version.

Although he had never made anything himself before this, Welch set out to make his regalia himself.

Welch wanted to incorporate various elements of Caledon into his livery, including green, as the “greenest town in Ontario,” and golf leaf motifs symbolizing Caledon's ties to nature.

He even sought outside counsel, turning to Peter Twist, a renowned expert in period military uniforms, regalia, and more; he was even an advisor on the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series.

Welch even initially did a watercolour of what he intended his uniform to look like.

“I did a lot of theatre, and I did set design for theatre and that kind of thing. But in terms of artwork, no particular inclination,” says Welch. “I don't paint unless I'm solving a problem.”

He has since adorned this regalia to hundreds of cries, including those at competitions.

Competitions for town criers are judged events where official criers display their skills in proclamation delivery, voice projection, and period-accurate costuming.

Welch has won numerous competitions over the years, including second place at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Town Crier Competition in June 2012, Best Ambassador in 2013, the overall winner at the Ontario Provincial Championship in Perth in 2016, and first place again on Amherst Island in 2018.

Looking back on 15 years as Caledon's Town Crier, Welch says he's unsure whether it went by fast or slowly.

Thinking about his cries over the past years, Welch adds they haven't changed all that much, often writing in limericks and keeping things quite humorous.

Reflecting on his career brings standout moments and cries for Welch, some of which include his Walk of Fame cry for Johnny Wayne, of Wayne and Shuster, where he implemented numerous elements of the show. Another is his cry that took a cue from Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream”.

One standout moment for Welch, his favourite cry, brings him back to the pandemic, when criers had little work due to the lack of gatherings.

He explains he began offering free cries for those celebrating milestone birthdays during COVID-19.

A woman contacted him, explaining that her father, who was turning 80 and not very mobile, was on the ninth floor of his apartment building and asked if Welch could stand in the parking lot and provide a cry for him.

When Welch began the cry, standing in that parking lot with the man on his balcony, other residents and neighbours came out onto their own balconies.

The whole building began cheering and clapping for the birthday celebration.

“She contacted me maybe two or three months later to say that he had passed. But that's all he talked about for the last three months was his 80th birthday and this big moment where all of the community was applauding him,” says Welch. “That's a great moment.”

The step down from his position does not mean he's hanging up the regalia for good; Welch will still be available to cry for special civic ceremonies, local organizations, and non-profits upon request. Town crier isn't the only thing he's stepping aside from; he left Canadian Red Cross disaster management, and no longer teaches search and rescue in Dufferin, making room for new pathways and opportunities in his life.

Leaving this role, he's looking back at an amazing career, featuring over a thousand cries and over 20 competitions.

His final official cry for the Town of Caledon may be over, but something tells us Andrew Welch will never quite be able to whisper at a community event.