Article

Clarence Meredith Hincks

Published Online December 13, 2007

Last Edited December 14, 2013

Clarence Meredith Hincks, physician, mental-health reformer (b at St Marys, Ont 8 Apr 1885; d at Toronto 17 Dec 1964). He received his MD from the University of Toronto in 1907 and, finding general practice unsuitable, obtained a part-time post as medical inspector for Toronto schools.

Hincks, Clarence Meredith

Clarence Meredith Hincks, physician, mental-health reformer (b at St Marys, Ont 8 Apr 1885; d at Toronto 17 Dec 1964). He received his MD from the University of Toronto in 1907 and, finding general practice unsuitable, obtained a part-time post as medical inspector for Toronto schools. In this capacity he was the first to introduce the newly developed Binet-Simon tests for intelligence into Canada. In 1917 he met Clifford W. Beers, founder of the US National Committee for Mental Hygiene, an organization dedicated to improving conditions in America's insane asylums and to promoting sound mental health. With Dr C.K. CLARKE, Hincks founded the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene in 1918, serving first as secretary and then as general director. In 1930 he was also appointed director of the US National Committee, a post he retained until 1939. He remained director of the renamed Canadian Mental Health Association until his retirement in 1952.