Another random grave stone.
I was meeting a friend for dinner the other week and was a little early, so while waiting for her to get home from work, I had a quick wander through Mt Pleasant Cemetery. I drove around and whenever I saw something interesting I popped out of my car and snapped a photo or two before continuing on. This is how I got last week's headstone. I am not sure why I took a picture of this headstone. It is rather simple and unassuming. There is not really anything unusual or interesting about it. And it is not even a very good photo.
I possibly took it as a distraction from taking a casual shot of these two sketchers I found nearby.
But, looking at it later at home, I did a bit of research, thinking that as a M.D. there might be more information on this R.W. Bruce Smith
Immediately, his name came up and I discovered that he was an Inspector of Hospitals for Ontario. He also seemed to be an Inspector of Prisons at one time.
Married to Mary McLachan (also spelled McLauchlan), they had a daughter, Ella, who married a Thomas Clendinnen and seems to have moved to Ottawa as she is buried in Beechwood Cemetery there. Thomas Clendinnen was in real estate, but was also the offspring of a physician, although his father, Robert Clendinnen, surgeon, died at age 40 of alcoholism.
Other than that, I had trouble finding anything personal about Dr Bruce Smith. I wondered what the R.W. stood for. I wondered if he died overseas in the war in 1916. His name came up most often in connection with articles regarding 'bulletin of the hospital for the insane', so he seemed to have been a prolific writer. Then I found something small but significant and inconsistent, and which opened up the search a little more. A -. A hyphen. Which could explain why he was most often referred to as Dr [R.W.] Bruce Smith and not Dr Smith. It doesn't explain why his head stone says simply 'Smith', though. Maybe he found it easier to go by the very last of his names.
In one of these bulletins of the Ontario Hospitals for the Insane from 3 April 1916, if you read through it, you will find inserted an 'in memoriam'
As the Bulletin goes to press we are shocked by
the sad news of the decease of its Author and Editor —
Dr. R. W. Bruce Smith. The end came peacefully to
the Doctor, while in his home surrounded by his family,
at five o'clock on Tuesday morning, the 28th of March,
after an illness of more than a year's duration.
He was born in Mitchell Ontario on 9 May 1857, the son of a Methodist clergyman. He started university as an arts student, but soon changed over to medicine. A physician for 15 years, he was elected President of the Medical Association in 1894 and in the same year was appointed as Assistant Physician of the Hospital for the Insane in Hamilton, moving on to the Eastern Hospital for the Insane in Brockville. When, in 1904, he was appointed Inspector of Hospitals and Charities
this opened up a new field for Dr. Bruce Smith's usefulness, and one in which he
became very widely known and most highly respected throughout the Province of Ontario.
More from the Bulletin:
He always had a sympathy for those engaged in the management of the hospitals, and encouraged every effort on their part tending to the betterment of
the patient. He was broad in his outlook, and in every
possible field he sought information, both from personal
contact with these institutions, and from various maga-
zines bearing on hospital administration from abroad.
Where these innovations would be helpful in Ontario he
adopted them.
He recognized the importance of the trained nurse in the adoption of true hospital methods for the care of the mentally sick. He was appointed Chairman of the Examining Board for the mental nurses, a position which he held up to the time of his decease.
Another important field of Doctor Smith's work was
centred in the editing of the Bulletin. This little pub-
lication was one of his hobbies, and where he found that
a medical officer was doing a bit of original research in
a quiet way the Doctor would suggest that an article
along these lines would be welcomed in the Bulletin.
Dr. Bruce Smith had a wide, wholesome sympathy for the individual sufferer, and
in every sphere in which his official life lay he was ready to extend a helpful
hand and give words of encouragement. He was never more pleased than when he
could recommend an appointment or promotion to some honest worker in his service. In a true sense he was humanitarian, and his work leaves a grateful memory in
the hearts of many people in Ontario.
And, in a happy co-incidence, today is the 96th anniversary of his death.
See more stories at Taphophile Tragics
Everything in the smaller type is from the 'Bulletin' and I don't know why the font and spacings keeps changing, but it is late and I give up.
Does anyone else hate the new look Blogger???
I possibly took it as a distraction from taking a casual shot of these two sketchers I found nearby.
I may have posted this one before, but it is cute enough for a repeat. a Moomin from Finland picking wildflowers
with another Kingfisher from Hong Kong and a Collard Scops Owl as a bonus
Though her stories for children were loved, her attitude towards adultery) which was reflected in her writings) was not so much. In her personal life, after an affair with her editor, she gave birth to a child out of wedlock. Until she was able to afford to take care of him, he was raised in a foster home where she regularly visited on weekends. It would seem that after declining marriage from the child's father, he declined support for the child. She would later marry her boss. Still, she was a advocate for children's and animal rights and against corporal punishment and was bestowed an award "...For her commitment to justice, non-violence and understanding of minorities as well as her love and caring for nature." 
Legend has it that upon meeting President Lincoln he was to have said to her "so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great [civil] war", such was the polarizing effect of her writing among readers in the North and the South. It all started when she wrote to a newspaper saying she wanted to write a story about the problem of slavery, "I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak... I hope every woman who can write will not be silent."
This house was built near the intersection of what is now Caroline St and Hurd Ave is known as the Hurd Farm House, although he did not actually live there; it may have been used as the farm manager's house. It was built around 1877 in a Folk Victorian style and is now a heritage designated property. All the alterations and replacements to the house are sympathetic to the period, including the sash windows and this pinwheel verge and it won a Heritage Award in 1991.
