Pathologist.
Born in Portsoy, Scotland, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and worked in hospitals in the English Midlands. After a brief period as a pathologist in Wolverhampton, he was appointed professor of pathology at the University of Manitoba. Before taking up his post in Manitoba, he served in Flanders as a captain with the Third Field Ambulance Unit, writing of the experience in the book With a Field Ambulance at Ypres (1915).
Boyd spent 22 years in Winnipeg, achieving an international reputation in pathology before becoming professor and head of pathology at the University of Toronto in 1937. After retirement from Toronto he was the first professor of pathology at the new medical school at the University of British Columbia, 1951-1954. He was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Manitoba in 1948. He was a member of the Scientific Club of Winnipeg from 1915 to 1937. Boyd was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Companion of the Order of Canada (1968). He wrote extensively; his medical textbooks, written mainly in Manitoba, were professional best-sellers for many years.
He died on 10 March 1979.
See also:
William Boyd: Silver Tongue and Golden Pen by Ian Carr (1993).
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 12 September 2014
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