Fonds F2537 - Queen's University. Medical House, Inc.

The grand yellow brick house at 49 King Street East, just across the park from the Dean's office, has for more than fifty years, been a home for undergraduate medical students at Queen's. Founded in 1933, initially as Psi Delta Psi fraternity, it became briefly affiliated with the international medical fraternity Nu Sigma Nu on May 25, 1934, in defiance of the Alma Mater Society policy of disallowing fraternities at Queen's. As a result, the twenty-four members of the Psi Delta Psi (Beta Sigma chapter), then at 252 King St. E. were summoned to appear before the AMS court, and were subsequently suspended from all student activities for one year. The members of the Beta Sigma chapter who were members of the Golden Gaels football team ("How" Hamlin, "Red" McNichol, Colin Dafoe, Frank Earle and Bill Glass) were not allowed to play in the championship game of 1934. (It is recorded that Queen's won anyway!). Recognizing the inevitable, by December 1, 1934 the charter affiliation with the fraternity was revoked and the AMS reinstated the 24 members. In 1935, the association was reorganized as Students Medical House Kingston. In the early years at least, it retained many of the traditions of fraternities nonetheless with membership restricted to invited students, who were subjected to initiation rituals and an approval process involving an enclosed box with black and white balls.

The House became formally incorporated in 1950 under the sponsorship of Dr. Ford Connell, who provided the initial mortgage backing for the purchase of the current house at 49 King St. E. He remained an active supporter throughout his life. For years following his retirement from the headship of the Department of Medicine would come to the house for the annual Christmas party, insisting that Hamilton's sherry be served prior to the dinner. The supply of sherry that he sent over was always more than sufficient to last for several years – sherry not being the beverage of choice of house members. He was usually accompanied in later years by Marshall Laverty and Ron Burr, the three of them tottering up the stairs to the front door to be greeted by awestruck students who knew of these titans of Queen's only by reputation. Bill Ghent (Meds '48) and Jamie Mahood (Meds '48) took over as faculty guardians after Ford Connell retired. It was during their tenure that the pipes froze over the Christmas holiday in 1975 when the house was left unattended. The subsequent thaw resulted in burst radiators and water pipes, with water running in rivers down the stairs. The house had just been renovated and redecorated two years earlier. The hundred-year-old parquet floors in the dining room and the presidential room were devastated and scraped out like ice from a driveway. The initial reaction to the devastation was to close the house down. The cost of repair was thought to be prohibitive. However, lead by Sandy Macdonald and Bruce Martin (both Meds '77), new radiators, found at a local wrecker, were installed by enthusiastic house members. Finally after almost 50 years, the polar room had a radiator appropriate to the size of the room. Subsequently Peter Doris (Meds 68), David Walker (Meds71), Frank Poce (Meds 70), and Wayne Spotswood (Meds70) became officers of the alumni group. Currently Minto Jain (Meds 92) is President of the alumni, Bob Reid (Meds74) secretary and Jim Wilson (Meds `77) treasurer.

Over the years the Medical House evolved to become more inclusive and women finally broke down this late bastion of male exclusivity in 1988. Currently Medical House serves as an unofficial club for undergraduate medical students. There are nominally sixteen medical students living at the house and approximately thirty external members who eat there regularly. Membership is open to any undergraduate medical student. Medical House parties are legendary and are a focal point for the social activities of the medical students. Prospective medical students who are invited to Queen's for interviews are entertained at Medical House during their weekend in Kingston to give them a taste of medical student life in Kingston.

The antics of members still continue and occasionally spill outside the confines of the house. On the evening of Oct. 15,2002 an anonymous tip from a concerned Kingston resident prompted 3 Kingston police squad cars to descend on Medical House, SWAT- team style concerned for the safety of individuals who had been reported to be bound, gagged and forced into the trunk of a late model gold Cadillac, and driven into the backyard parking lot of 49 King St. After explaining that the prank never intended to involve the police and apologizing to the officers for the misunderstanding, all officers left the scene minutes later. The students were relieved that the event ended without further harm only to learn two days later that the front page headline in the Kingston Whig-Standard blared "What a Bloody Stupid Prank" and urged readers to write and voice their displeasure with the medical students involved. The suitably abashed students subsequently printed a public apology from house members in the paper. The Dean at the time reinforced the newspaper comment to the involved students at a review of the incident.

The walls of Medical House are covered with composite photographs of graduating members going back to 1933. For the 1943 and 1944 class, the photographs are taken with the graduates in military uniform. Dr. Wes Clare MC (Meds '40) relates that "To me it seems noteworthy that of the seven medical officers to land during the Dieppe raid, three were Queen's men who had been and were members of Medical House during the penalty year-1934. It is my opinion that Queen's and the medical faculty were well represented on August 19, 1942").

Dr. Ben Brachman (Meds '33) Battalion MO, landed at Pourville and was evacuated to England and subsequently received the Military Cross
Dr. Reg Laird, (Meds'37), MO of the Royal Regiment of Canada, landed at Puys, wounded with loss of leg, POW and repatriated late in 1943
Dr. Wes Clare, (Meds '40), MO of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, landed at-, Dieppe, POW 32 months, received the Military Cross, and was representative of ,J the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in the official party which returned to Dieppe on August 19, 1992 for the 50th anniversary of the Dieppe raid.

Despite the antics over the years, alumni of Medical House have gone on to made significant contributions on Canadian society. Among the over 600 alumni of Medical House are several department heads at Queen's and other medical schools, Deans of Queen's and elsewhere, presidents of several national specialty societies, presidents and registrars of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, presidents of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the College of Family Practice of Canada.

There are eminent athletes. There is a photograph of John Emery (Meds '57), member of the bobsled team known as "The Icemen" who won the Olympic gold medal winner in 1964 at Innsbruck using a borrowed sled. There is the photo of Max Buxton (Meds '84), a member of the 1988 Canadian-Russian transpolar expedition. He was one of two physicians among 4 Canadians and 8 Soviets who left Cape Arktichesky in the Soviet Union on March 1, 1988 and arrived on Ward Hunt Island in Canada on May 30th. Along the way, with temperatures as low as -48C, Max and his Soviet counterpart were hard-pressed to preserve the safety of their team. Max subsequently was a member of the 2000 Canadian Everest expedition. Max is also renowned for renovating the basement into a private bedroom for himself, known since as the Stayfree Max(i) Pad.

There are signed photographs and memorabilia of several eminent visitors to the house. There is a photo of L.J. "Blimey" Austin, Head of the Department of Surgery at Queen's in the 1930's and 1940's. He was a frequent visitor and toward the end of his life made a final visit and instructed the members to "turn down an empty glass for me". The overturned glass remains in the window above the fireplace in the dining room in his memory. Other photos include one of Frederick Banting who dined there Jan. 17, 1939. There is a photograph of Lester Pearson who came to lunch on Jan 29, 1969 on the occasion of his visit to Queen's as Brockington visitor. The story goes that he was invited to lunch at the house and it being a Wednesday, the menu for the day was hot dogs. In fact the menu for most days was hot dogs as the repertoire and budget of Gertie Ruttan (Couling) the cook at the time did not extend much beyond this. Mike was instructed to present Gertie with a bronzed hot dog mounted on a plaque indicating that she had served one million hot dogs to Queen's medical students.

Several of the composite pictures include a photograph of Gwen Armstrong identifying her not as a medical student but as "House Mother". Although Gwen was nominally the cook at the house for more than two decades, (from 1974 to 1999) she was the Mom away from home cajoling and encouraging a generation of medical students to do well. She had a remarkable memory for previous members and would relate stories and anecdotes, some less than complimentary of past members who had gone on to graduate and become respected members of the profession. She was invited to numerous weddings, became surrogate grandmother to several children of residents and faculty members, and attended every convocation of "my boys", always sitting in the front row of the Jock Harty arena. She left Medical House in 1999 to a much-deserved retirement.

Students Medical House Kingston Incorporated was established in controversy seventy years ago. It has evolved to become an important part of the undergraduate medical student experience at Queen's. May it long remain.

Paul Johnston Meds '05
Jim Wilson Meds '77