Physician, author.
Born at Bushy Vere, Jamaica on 10 October 1844, the eldest son of Rev. Edward and Elizabeth Husband, his family owned Green Vale, a Jamaican coffee plantation, for over two hundred years. His father died when he was 10 years old, and he was sent to England to be educated. He later took medical studies for six years at Edinburgh University in Scotland, graduating in 1865, at the age of 21, with the degrees MBCM, BSc, FRCSE, and MRCSE. He practiced medicine at a mental hospital in London then was a general practitioner. He also wrote several medical books, including Medical and Surgical Examination Questions (1871), The Student’s Handbook of the Practice of Medicine (1873), The Student’s Handbook of Forensic Medicine and Medical Police (1874), The Student’s Pocket Prescriber (1882), and Sanitary Law: A Digest of the Sanitary Acts of England and Scotland (1883).
He emigrated with his family to Canada due to unspecified “financial difficulties” and, in the spring of 1885, arrived at the Manitoba town of Millford where he homesteaded at SE36-7-17. He also practiced medicine over a large area extending from east of Glenboro, south to Pelican Lake, Ninette and Belmont, and halfway to Brandon. He also served as Health Inspector for Wawanesa, and a provincial coroner. In 1888, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace at Souris City. As his practice grew, he went into partnership with Dr. Brand of Wawanesa. In 1893, he served as President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. He retired from active medical practice in 1900.
In 1870, he married Georgina Greville. They had five children: Mary Lillian Husband (b 1871, wife of Stanley Kohler, who later inherited the family plantation), Grace Husband (b 1872), Aubrey Husband (b 1872), Edward Craskill Husband (1874-1963, husband of Georgina Rinder), and Amy Bentinck Husband (b 1876, wife of Archibald C. Cooper).
He inherited the family plantation in 1905 and returned to Jamaica with his wife, leaving his adult children in Canada. There he advocated for better living conditions for common people, and Sunday opening of museums and botanical gardens so working people could visit them. He died in Jamaica in 1933.
“A big batch; A large number of J.P.’s gazetted in the last issue of the Manitoba Gazette,” Manitoba Free Press, 8 March 1888, page 2.
Marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Early Doctors of Red River and Manitoba by Ross Mitchell, MHS Transactions, Series 3, 1947-48 Season.
Oakland Echoes, 1879-1970 by J. B. Rome, 1970, page 88. [Manitoba Legislative Library]
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 31 August 2014
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