Accession - UAA-1972-051

Dr. Howard Havelock Hepburn was a physician and surgeon who was born in Hillview, Manitoba in 4 Nov. 1885. Hepburn obtained his early education in Manitoba public schools and later attended the Collegiate Institute in Brandon where he received his teacher's license. In 1924 he married Miss Mabel Rogers. After doing some educational work and taking a course at the Regina Normal School he moved to Edmonton in 1905. In the fall of 1906 he went to Montreal and became a medical student at McGill University. He graduated from McGill in 1920 with degrees of M.D. and C.M. He interned at Montreal General Hospital for almost three years before receiving an appointment from the Siamese government. He worked there for a year and a half before his health made him quit. Hepburn then took postgraduate courses in Berlin and Heidlberg, Germany studying surgery and the bran and the nervous system. He was in Berlin when war broke out, therefore as a foreigners he was under police supervision before securing passage to England. He was placed in English secret service until 1914 when he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Medical Corps of the Royal Army. He served in Chatham, England and France. For the 5 years he was in active service he worked in multiple capacities as a medical officer. Hepburn spent three years was in charge of a surgical division in a field hospital. On the inauguration of the drive for Passchendale, Hepburn was injured and was in a hospital for three months. Following his recovering he went to France and works at General Hospital No.4 at Camiers. In 1918 he served in a hospital until in Dunkirk, France. Following his discharge from the military on 15 September 1919 he sailed from Liverpool to Montreal and then made his way to Edmonton to visit relatives. Hepburn then continued his career in Edmonton.

From 1913 to 1919 Dr. Hepburn travelled to a wide variety of countries as a possessor of a retentive memory. He was a member of the Edmonton Club and the Mayfair Golf and Country Club. In 1919 Hepburn received a fellowship in the Royal College of Surgery at Edinburgh, Scotland, and in the following year he was made a fellow in the American College of Surgeons. He was also the secretary of the Alberta Medical Association and is also treasurer of the Edmonton Academy of Medicine, of which he served as secretary in 1921. Hepburn received the Military Cross in 1917 for his actions on the battle field. Hepburn was a Presbyterian and a supporter of the Liberal Party.