DICKSON, JOHN ROBINSON

born Nov. 15, 1819, Dungannon, Northern Ireland died Nov. 23, 1882, Wolfe Island, near Kingston, Lower Canada [now Ontario, Can.] Irish-born medical doctor and educator who was instrumental in establishing organized medical training in Canada. Dickson's family immigrated to Upper Canada in 1837, a move that interrupted his medical studies in Glasgow, Scot. He studied for one term at the University of New York, receiving his M.D. degree in 1842. He then returned to Canada and opened a practice in Kingston. Together with a group of colleagues, Dickson proposed a plan for the establishment of a faculty of medicine at Queens College in Kingston; in 1855 the faculty was organized, and Dickson was appointed to teach the principles and practice of surgery. Dickson and others left Queens in 1864 in a dispute with the trustees. Within two years they had established the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Kingston. Dickson also served as the first president of the Council of Medical Education and Registration of Upper Canada. He retired in 1881.