Sir Andrew Macphail & Orwell by Ian Ross Robertson

Sir Andrew Macphail & Orwell by Ian Ross Robertson Sir Andrew Macphail (1864- quoting is Sir Andrew Macphail, one of be construed as such. He treated 1938), a native of Orwell, was those 153. This evening I am going to the crude boys as if they were grave McGill University's first profes- try to explain who Macphail was, to young gentlemen determined to be- sor of the history of medicine. indicate the broad range of his come scholars and win by their He was also a distinguished es- achievements, and to suggest how scholarship any highest place in the sayist, editor, social critic, sol- important this district was to him. world . This teacher had the dier, and applied scientist. The Macphail was bom in 1864, the year curious idea that boys came to following lecture was delivered of the Charlortetown conference. He school to learn; not to waste their by Ian Ross Robertson on 29 was the son of William Macphail, a time, or their parents' money; and July 1975 at the historic Uigg Scottish schoolmaster who taught in certainly not to play games. If they grammar school, which Mac- Uigg in the 1860s and who bought the required work or exercise, the farm phail attended in the 1870s. It farm on which the old schoolhouse was the better place. It was well was sponsored by the Orwell (1849-78) was situated. That farm understood that the intention in Corner project, and co- today constitutes Sir Andrew Macphail coming to school was to escape ordinator Malcolm MacPherson Provincial Park. Andrew was one of ten from work by sitting in a professor's presided. There were in the au- children. Seven of them attained at least chair or on a judge's bench, by dience several persons who had one university degree, and most of standing in the pulpit or before the known Sir Andrew Macphail. those attended McGill University in altar, or moving at leisure in profes- The address is reproduced as Montreal. Andrew himself, at the age of sional or political office. delivered. 15, won an entrance scholarship to Prince of Wales College. Some of you I am sure that many of you here will recall Prince of Wales College, tonight are familiar with this idea about which perished six years ago, at the age the purpose of education. I went back of 109. In 1880 it was run by Alexander to the Latin root of the word, namely I am very conscious this evening of Anderson, a Scot from Aberdeen who exducare, to draw out. The educa- speaking in a schoolhouse and in a had been a gold medallist at the tional process was to draw out the best district which have played distinguished University of Edinburgh. More than that there was in a man, and it was roles in Island education. University half a century later Macphail recalled also to draw the best men out of the degrees are quite common today, and, that: common herd of humanity. If one was by all accounts, quite easy to come by. educated, he would never again have But until this generation they were not. Of the many teachers I have since to get his hands dirty through "work- In 1937 a man wrote that in his lifetime known he was the best. His author- ing." Education was "the escape." 153 students had gone forth from this ity was absolute; therefore he was This attitude was reflected in the Uigg school to take one or more never known to exercise it . He comment made by Macphail's Scottish university degrees. Fifty-three of the had two hundred scholars under his grandmother after he had won the 153 went on to become lawyers, control, and in two years he never entrance scholarship to Prince of doctors, clergymen, or engineers. At administered to any one so much as Wales College: " 'Well, what else any one time, the school serviced, at the a rebuke, unless a whimsical banter- would you expect?' She remembered, maximum, 40 families. The man I am ing reference to youthful folly might part in sorrow, part in pride 'that none of your father's name ever worked.' was a small and intimate institution. The Macphails had been teachers or The total enrolment was around 400. clergymen for some 400 years. In He later recalled that: Andrew's words, "not one had been compelled to work with his hands." On the way into the mysterious Prince of Wales College was run on world to a great University, oppres- this old elitist principle of excellence. sed by a sense of inexperience and Lest you think that this was simply a ignorance, I was striving even at that matter of shirking farmwork, or of desperate moment to repair this snobbery, the attitude towards educa- unworthiness by reading Greek tion which I have described had prose composition. A senior student another set of roots among Scottish also on his way discovered me at Islanders. As many of you „ know, in the task. "Put that book away," he 18th- and 19th-century Scotland, men said, "and tell them you come from were being turned out of their humble the Prince of Wales College." I told crofts in order to make way for large- them so, and they admitted me into Public Archives of Prince Edward Island scale sheep-raising. In order just to the second year. Sir Andrew survive without having to go to the slums of Glasgow or London, or the But one part of life in Montreal contract in New York with a number forests of British North America, it was staggered him: the cost of living. He of newspapers, to sail around the wise to hedge against the future by immediately looked for outside world and report on the places he getting an education, for there was employment. It was fortunate for Mac- saw. He visited Britain, France, Japan, little security of tenure on one's land. phail that he had gone to McGill Egypt, Hong Kong, and Singapore. He In Prince Edward Island, through well-prepared and was not obliged to was away for four months. Prince of Wales College, with its Scot- spend excessive time on study. He This was the Andrew Macphail who tish professors, this frame of mind took worked as a private tutor and as a began to practice medicine in on a new life. Each year a small newspaper reporter. He was very suc- Montreal. At the age of 29 he married number of boys went forth from the cessful at both activities. As a tutor he Georgina Burland of that city. They college and won academic honours received more per hour than he had had two children both of whom would whether they went to McGill, Queen's, received per day as a full-time teacher be known to many of you present: Dalhousie, Edinburgh, or Princeton. In at Malpeque. Within a few years he Jeffrey, who died in the late 1940s, 1888 McGill University gave Anderson was earning 2,000 dollars per annum and Dorothy, Mrs. Lionel Lindsay, the recognition of an honorary degree. as a reporter for the Montreal Gazette, who lives in Montreal and visits Orwell Andrew Macphail remained at Montreal Star, Toronto Globe, various most summers. Prince of Wales College two years. wire services, and a number of Ameri- Over the years Macphail became a Then he taught at Melville, some 15 can papers, including the New York man of distinction in many fields, and miles from here. However, at Christ- Times. This was a very handsome this evening all I can do is sketch some mas his school was closed because of income for the era; in Malpeque his of his achievements, activities, and an outbreak of diphtheria. Andrew annual salary as a teacher had been honours. then moved on to Malpeque grammar 380 dollars. In other words, he held In the first place of course there was school, where he taught for two and down a full-time job, and was highly his medical career. He successfully one-half years. There he became a successful at it, in addition to his practiced medicine on a full-time basis central figure in the community. He university studies. But there was even for about ten years. On the death of helped to establish a local literary more to it than that: by taking extra his wife Georgie in 1902 he was left institute. And he gained access to the courses he did in six years at McGill alone, at age 37, with two small library of a doctor, and proceeded to what was normally done in eight. children. He ceased to practice read all the books therein. He also Futhermore, he was active in extra- medicine and for several years largely began to develop his journalistic curricular affairs and edited a student withdrew from the normal round of abilities by contributing reports to the magazine on the arts. His secret was social life. But he was not the sort of Island press on Malpeque events. But simple: in his words, "I learned to man to become an inactive hermit. In in his last year at Malpeque he was sleep without appearing to be asleep, 1903 he was named editor of the troubled about his future. In the best and by that gift was spared many a Montreal Medical Journal and four Victorian manner, he gave the most useless lecture." When he finished his years later he was appointed McGill's earnest consideration to the choice of career as a student at McGill he had first professor of the history of a profession.

Load more