Fonds MG4080 - Eberts Family Fonds

Hermann Melchior Eberts (1753-1819), a descendant of Austrian nobility, was born in Augsburg and trained as a physician. He enlisted as surgeon in the Hanau Regiment, which was hired by the British Government to fight the rebellious Thirteen Colonies, but after spending a year stationed in Quebec, he obtained his discharge. He practised medicine in the Montreal area until 1790, and then moved to Detroit, where, from 1796 to 1798, he acted as coroner and sheriff of Wayne County. In 1805, Eberts moved with his family to Sandwich (Windsor) in Upper Canada. Hermann Joseph Eberts (1842-1906), one of his great grand-children, was born at Chatham, educated at the High School department of McGill College, received training in law, and held various business positions in Chatham and Winnipeg. H. J. Eberts’ eldest son, Edward Melchior (1873-1945), graduated in Medicine at McGill University in 1897, did postgraduate work in London, and then held various positions, most notably that of surgeon, at the Montreal General Hospital. After 1905 he also taught surgery at McGill, rising to the level of Full Professor in 1929. He had five children, including Hermann Livingston Eberts (1905-1982), a Montreal businessman and engineer, who graduated from the Royal Military College and McGill University with a B.Sc. in 1929, and Edmond Howard Eberts (born 1906), who received his B.C.L. at McGill in 1931, after serving as President of the Law Undergraduate Society.