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Dr. William Henry
Macdonald, successfully engaged in the practice' of medicine and surgery
at Medicine hat, was born in New Brunswick on the 1st of June, 1873, and
is a son of Wentworth C. and Harriett (Johnston) Macdonald. The father
was born in Pictou county, Nova Scotia, and the mother was born in
Colchester district, Nova Scotia, and now resides in Medicine Hat, at
the age of eighty years. They were married in Nova Scotia and Mr.
Macdonald engaged in business as a railway contractor. He assisted in
building the short line railway and the eastern extension and was very
skillful and successful in his line. He made a specialty of concrete
work and the splendid quality of his work brought him continuous
patronage. his death occurred in 1904, when he was seventy-four years of
age. He was a consistent and helpful member of the Presbyterian church,
of which Mrs. Macdonald has also been a most active representative and
fraternally Mr. Macdonald was a Mason, while politically he was a
Conservative. He served as councilor for the municipality for several
years and manifested a progressive spirit in relation to all public
affairs. The record shows that the Macdonald family is Scotch and
Wentworth Macdonald was the son of William Macdonald, who was born in
Inverness, Scotland, and in 1804 crossed the Atlantic, settling iii Nova
Scotia on a farm in Pictou county. There in the midst of the forest he
hewed out his home and spent his remaining days. In the maternal line
Dr. Macdonald represents one of the old families of Nova Scotia, his
grandfather, Robert Johnston, having been born and reared at Truro,
while in that locality he followed farming throughout his life.
In the family of Mr. and
Mrs. Wentworth Macdonald there were seven children, five of whom are
living: The eldest is Hugh J., now a contractor of Winnipeg; the second
is Dr. Macdonald of this review; Robert J., the next of the family, is
also a contractor of Winnipeg; J. Campbell is a civil engineer in charge
of irrigation for the British Columbia government. He was for ten years
in Dalhousie College at Halifax, Nova Scotia, after which he
participated in the South African war and he lost a year in college
while playing football in the All Canadian Ball Team in England. He
served with the rank of major in the World war, for service in which he
enlisted in August, 1914. He went to France, where he remained
throughout the struggle, winning the military cross and receiving
several mentions in dispatches; Forrester, the next of the family, is a
dentist of Medicine Hat. He was graduated from the University of
Pennsylvania and in his college days was a famous football player.
Dr. Macdonald was
educated in the schools of Truro and in the Truro Academy of Nova
Scotia, after which he attended the Provincial Normal College at Truro,
where he studied for two years and then matriculated in the Medical
School at Dalhousie University at Halifax, from which he was graduated
in 1896, at the age of twenty-two years. He served in the General
Hospital at Halifax, where he gained broad and valuable experience and
then went to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, where he practiced for fifteen
years. In January, 1913, he arrived in Medicine Hat, where he continues
in general practice but does considerable surgery. lie is on the
hospital staff and displays skill and ability in his surgical work.
Formerly he served on the hospital board. In 1916 he went overseas as a
member of the Canadian Army Medical Corps and there remained for two and
a half years, while for three years he was in the army, serving with the
rank of major. He was in charge of surgery in the Third Canadian
Casualty Clearing Station, a very important position, and was in the
Fifth Army retreat. He returned by way of the Panama canal and resumed
his practice in Medicine Hat, where he is accorded a place among the
representative physicians and surgeons of the city.
In 1898 Dr. Macdonald was
married to Miss Victoria Young, who was born in Middleton, Nova Scotia,
and there was reared and educated. She is a graduate nurse, having
completed her course in the Nurses School of the Victoria General
Hospital. Dr. and Mrs. Macdonald have become parents of two children:
Bruce Stewart, who is now a senior in the Alberta University at
Edmonton; and Ian, for two years in the Royal Naval College but now a
sophomore in the University of Alberta.
Politically Dr. Macdonald
is a Conservative but he has never been active in politics as an office
seeker. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity in which he has attained
the Knights Templar degree and he is a past grand senior warden of the
Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia. He also belongs to the Canadian Order of
Foresters and is a member of the local golf club, which indicates
something of the nature of his recreation. Both he and his wife have
membership in the Presbyterian church, in the work of which they take
helpful part. Dr. Macdonald is serving as an elder and Mrs. Macdonald is
active in the different church societies and branches of church work.
Necessarily the Doctor gives the major part of his attention to his
professional duties and ambitious to attain the highest degree of
efficiency possible he has taken several postgraduate courses in New
York and also short courses under the Mayo Brothers, world famous
surgeons of Rochester, Minnesota. He reads broadly, thinks deeply and
utilizes every opportunity to keep in touch with the most advanced and
scientific thought bearing upon the laws of health. |
