McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Howard Le Rossignol Dawson Fonds
Fonds
1.2 m of textual records
Howard Le Rossignol Dawson was born in 1895, attended the Academy in Westmount, entered McGill University in 1914 receiving a B.A. in 1918 and graduating as Doctor of Medicine in 1921. While at McGill, he was an active member of Epsilon Phi and became Secretary of the Medical Undergraduate Society. He then practised at the Royal Victoria Hospital and obtained a position as Assistant Demonstrator in McGill’s Pathology Department (1923-1924). In 1924 Howard Dawson was appointed Assistant Resident in the Department of Surgery of Yale University’s School of Medicine, but soon returned to Montreal and the Royal Victoria Hospital. He once again obtained the position of Assistant Demonstrator at McGill from 1927 to 1936, this time in the Department of Surgery, and continued to teach there until 1959, rising to the ranks of Demonstrator in 1936, Lecturer in 1939 and Assistant Professor in 1942. He also maintained a private practice and served as medical advisor to the Royal Trust Company from 1937 to 1960. He died in 1979. Howard Dawson’s cousin, Stephen Arthur Dawson, attended McGill, served in the 9th Canadian Field Ambulance, trained in the Naval Air Service and then was killed in France in 1918 while flying for the Royal Air Force. Dawson’s friend Ross Kerr, also a Royal Air Force pilot, was killed in 1917.
The Howard Dawson’s fonds consists mainly of medical records, most of which are patients case cards and accounts (1950-1964) arranged alphabetically. Access to these records is restricted. Other medical records include appointment books, off-prints of medical journal articles, annual reports and handbooks, as well as typescripts of lectures on the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and sanitation in the army (1939-1945). Dawson’s personal records are largely made up of financial documents, many of them relating to his stock holdings (1956-1969) and the construction of his house at Ste-Agathe des Monts (1936-1962). Of great interest are ten long letters written by his cousin Stephen and four letters from Dawson’s friend Ross Kerr which describe conditions on the Western Front and in the Royal Naval Air Service Flying School during World War I. Other personal records include a high school report card and a yearbook (1913), miscellaneous correspondence (1924-1969) and a handbook of McGill’s Epsilon Phi fraternity (1923).
Donated by Pamela Miller on May 20, 1986
Partly restricted.
Box Listing available
Hand-written and typescript