Thomas George Roddick

Sir Thomas George Roddick (1846 to 1923) was a Canadian surgeon, medical administrator and politician, born in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland. He graduated from the medical faculty of McGill University in 1868 with the highest honours and went on to teach hygiene, anatomy and clinical surgery there. After travelling to Edinburgh in 1877 to see Joseph Lister's antiseptic method, he introduced Lister's carbolic spray to the hospitals of Montreal. In 1894 he helped found the Department of Surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital and became its first chief surgeon, and from 1901 to 1908 he was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at McGill. He served as a militia surgeon and took charge of medical affairs in the field during the North-West Rebellion of 1885. Elected to the House of Commons in 1896, he spent eighteen years campaigning for the Canada Medical Act, which led to the Medical Council of Canada in 1912 and a national licensing standard. He was knighted in 1914.