Physician.
Born at Birmingham, England on 4 February 1928, he served with the Royal Air Force during the Berlin Airlift. He attended St. John’s College, Cambridge and graduated from Medical School at Guy’s Hospital in London in 1954. In 1956 he joined Her Majesty’s Overseas Civil Service and was posted to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he met his wife-to-be, Mary. They were married in 1958, moved back to the UK in 1960 where he joined a practice in Nottingham, and went on to have four children. In 1969 he and his family emigrated to Canada, settling in the St. Vital area. He practised medicine out of downtown Winnipeg. For four years, he worked at the Gillam Hospital in northern Manitoba, then in 1991 returned to Winnipeg, where he continued practising part-time until retiring in 1995.
A visionary who was passionate about research, soon after coming to Canada he began recording information about the illnesses, diseases, and problems he saw in his practice in an “ebook.” The ebook, used by researchers before the advent of computer technology, was a multi-ringed notebook that held cards on which physicians recorded details of each encounter with a patient. He believed that data gathered by family physicians would be valuable in helping to define and determine the content of family practice in Canada, and that the data could be used to better understand the practice patterns in various areas of the country. He also believed that such data could help practitioners plan for the future and help in the education of future family physicians, to ensure that what they learn would be relevant to the world they would soon be entering. His ebook provided an unusual service during the forest fires that threatened the town of Gillam in the summer of 1989. Town officials asked him to provide a list of patients whose illnesses would be exacerbated by inhaling smoke from the fires. Within hours, he had provided the information, and 250 people were evacuated from Gillam.
During his professional life he was a Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Manitoba, a member of the Board of the Manitoba Medical Association, a member of the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, and a President of the Manitoba Society for the History of Medicine. He was a Fellow of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, a President (1976) of the Manitoba Chapter of the CFPC, and was named Manitoba’s Family Physician of the Year in 1991. In 2013, he was posthumously honoured with a Lifetime Achievement in Family Medicine Research Award.
In retirement he remained active as a research volunteer with the Western Canadian Aviation Museum, was an editor of the 500 Wing RCAF Association newsletter (The Pegboard), belonged to the Sherlock Holmes Society, and held a solo pilot’s certificate. He completed the Manitoba Marathon three times, the first at the age of 51. He was well-read, his main interests being medical and military history.
He died at Winnipeg on 24 August 2006.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 26 August 2006.
“Dr. Anthony Valentine,” Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine, 2013.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 17 July 2024
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