BYRNE, THOMAS IVES (1873-1941)
BYRNE, THOMAS IVES, doctor; mayor of Chatham, 1911-12; b. Sussex, N.B., 4 Jul 1873, s/o James Byrne, a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, and Sarah Green; m. 1900, Rita Ross, of St Stephen, N.B.; d. Yarmouth, N.S., 29 May 1941.
The son of a talented Kings County family, T. Ives Byrne attended St Francis Xavier University and was trained in medicine at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York (MD 1894). For a number of years he was a doctor in St Stephen, where his father-in-law, Dr Robert K. Ross, also practiced medicine.
Byrne started advertising a Chatham practice in The World in September 1905, giving his place of residence as the Adams House. The notices were discontinued in 1906, possibly when he was joined in Chatham by his wife and children. It was stated that he had had "some pretty hot scraps in political warfare in Charlotte County," and during a seven-year residency on the Miramichi he was at the forefront of Liberal party politics. He was not a nominee for provincial office, but he was elected to a seat on the Chatham Town Council and later to a one-year term as mayor.
In its issue of 13 September 1912 the North Shore Leader reported that Byrne was under arrest for an "attempted assault" on a twelve-year-old Chatham girl. On 28 September his wife gave notice in The World that legal action would be taken against patients whose accounts remained overdue as of 5 October. Soon afterwards, she and the children moved to Yarmouth, N.S., where her parents were then living. The case came before the Circuit Court at Newcastle in December, but Byrne, who evidently had been released pending trial, was reported to be "out of the country." A charge of "attempted rape" was upheld at this time, however, and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. The seriousness with which the matter was being treated is indicated by the fact that the provincial attorney general came to Newcastle and was in attendance at the court.
The events which ensued have not been researched, and the outcome of the case is not known. According to Byrne's obituary in the Kings County Record he lived in Dartmouth, N.S., for twenty-two years and worked at first in association with a Dr Dixon. The same source states that he retired in 1934 and moved to Yarmouth to live in 1940, a year before his death. He was survived by his wife, Rita Ross, two sons, and two daughters.
Sources
[b/d] official death records [m] King's County Record 5 Jun 1941 / Fraser (C); Gill; Leader 13 Sep 1912; Stewart; World 23 Sep 1905 (ad), 28 Sep 1912, 12 Oct 1912, 4 Dec 1912
Notes
i) The numbers of the Chatham World dated 11 Sep, 14 Sep, and 21 Sep 1912 are missing from the microfilm of the newspaper. ii) Most biographical statements concerning Byrne have omitted the fact that he lived and practiced medicine in Chatham. At the time of his death, both the Kings County Record, of Sussex, and the Halifax Chronicle stated that he had lived in St Stephen, and that "from there he moved to Dartmouth." iii) Stewart does not include Byrne among Northumberland County doctors but states in his chapter on medicine in Charlotte County that he moved from St Stephen to Chatham and was a member of the first hospital staff. The names of the doctors associated with the Miramichi Hospital when it opened were published in the Union Advocate of 12 Jul 1916, and Byrne's was not among them.