John Clarence Webster

Webster, John Clarence

John Clarence Webster, physician, historian, nationalist (b at Shediac, NB 21 Oct 1863; d there 16 Mar 1950). Educated in Shediac and at Mount Allison and Edinburgh universities, from 1890 to 1896 he was an assistant instructor at Edinburgh and Berlin. He was assistant gynaecologist 1896-99 at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montréal and lecturer at McGill. While in Montréal he co-operated with Lady ABERDEEN in the founding of the VICTORIAN ORDER OF NURSES. Webster left Canada to take up the appointment of professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at U of Chicago Rush Medical Centre (1899) with accompanying hospital appointments. He retired to Shediac in 1919 and began an entirely new career. Fascinated with history since his youth, he now took up the field full time. He amassed a library on N American history, and then collected some 9000 artifacts and visual representations of that history. In 1922 he was asked to become a member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board. He remained on the board until 1949, becoming its chairman in 1940. His major historical work, Acadia at the End of the Seventeenth Century, still sells well. In 1935, for his services to Canada, he was made a Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George and awarded the Order of Merit by King George V. By the time of his death, he had received awards and honours from kings, governments and universities in Great Britain, France, Italy, the US and Canada.