Cluny Macpherson

Macpherson, Cluny

Cluny Macpherson, doctor, inventor, businessman, justice of the peace (b at St John's Mar 1879; d there 16 Nov 1966). Educated at McGill and later in Edinburgh and Paris, he was commissioned a surgeon and magistrate in Battle Harbour, Labrador, where he helped Wilfred GRENFELL contain a smallpox epidemic. He returned to private practice in St John's in 1904 and was appointed registrar of the Newfoundland Medical Board, a position he held with few interruptions until his death. He was decorated in May 1915 for his invention of the gas helmet to provide protection against poison gas. Active as the director of the Grenfell Association of Newfoundland and a director of the International Grenfell Association, president of the Medical Council of Canada, 1954-55, and president of a commission of the Newfoundland Supreme Court, Macpherson was also prominent in business.