Western Canada's medical past has no more an illustrious figure and no greater contributor than Robert George Brett of Banff.

From the time of his arrival in Winnipeg in 1880 until 1915 he was involved in all the major medical initiatives that established the colleges, associations, and medical faculties in Manitoba, the North-West Territories (NWT), and Alberta. He was a prominent medical educator, early surgeon, entrepreneur, politician, and medical statesman. He was one of the founders of the Manitoba Medical College (1883), and led the formation of the NWT Medical Council (1889), the Alberta Medical Association (1906), Alberta College (1906), and the Western Canadian Medical Association (1907), the latter being a prototype of the Medical Council of Canada.

Politically, Brett was the head of the NWT Legislative Advisory Council (1889-1891); leader of the NWT Opposition (1892-1899); a leader of the NWT Responsible Government movement (1891), and one of the early proponents for the division of the Territories into two prairie provinces. By 1915 he was regarded as the "Grand Man of Alberta Medicine" to whom everyone turned. Prime Minister Borden acknowledged his contributions when he appointed Brett the second lieutenant governor of Alberta in 1915. His legacy and our indebtedness to him have grown immeasurably during the past century because of the institutions he helped form.

Of Irish descent, Brett was born in Strathroy, Ontario, on November 16, 1851. In 1867 he left school and apprenticed with Dr. ER. Eccles before going to University of Toronto. (1) Graduating with a freshly-minted MD in 1872 from Victoria College, Cobourg, Ontario, Robert Brett returned and practised briefly with Doctor Eccles before moving to Arkona, Ontario, near London, where he practised from 1874 to 1879. (2) On June 26, 1878, he married Louise T. Hungerford (1855-1935) of nearby Watford, Ontario. Her sister Florence married Dr. N.J. Lindsay a year later. During his four years in Arkona, Brett undertook post-graduate training in New York and Philadelphia in 18763 before moving to Winnipeg in 1880. He arrived in the middle of a real estate boom and was quick to join it. Unfortunately, the bubble burst and forced him back to medicine as a livelihood.

There is a strong suspicion that Brett held CPR medical construction contracts during the 1881-1883 period. (4) In the summer of 1883, Dr. Brett and his brother-in-law, Dr. Lindsay, took a train out of Winnipeg and arrived five days later on August 14 aboard the second train into Calgary. (5) Brett and Lindsay were the second and third physicians to reach Calgary after Dr. A. Henderson. The CPR General Manager, William Van Home, arrived in Calgary days later and either by pre-arrangement or on the spot contracted with Brett to provide and manage the medical services for the CPR construction crews through the Kicking Horse and Rogers passes.

By the fall of 1883, Brett had returned to Winnipeg where, with twelve other colleagues, he founded the Manitoba Medical College, an entity separate from the University of Manitoba. The two would not...