DESMOND, FRANCIS JOHN (1862-1942)

DESMOND, FRANCIS JOHN, doctor and public health officer; b. Buctouche, N.B., 7 Oct 1862, s/o Patrick Desmond and Sarah Fitzpatrick; m. 1912, Joanna Gillespie, RN, of Parrsboro, N.S.; d. Moncton, 18 Aug 1942.

Francis J. Desmond was a graduate of St Michael's Commercial College when it was conducted by the Christian Brothers in Chatham, and he taught for a year at St Louis College in Kent County. He then returned to the Miramichi to study medicine with Dr Ingram B. Freeman and Dr Robert McLearn (then of Newcastle, but later of Fredericton) before enrolling in McGill University, where he took the MD and CM degrees in 1888. He practiced in Newcastle from that date until 1918, when he was appointed health officer and chairman of the Sub-district boards of health for the counties of Northumberland, Kent, Westmorland, and Albert. He moved to Moncton in this capacity in 1931 and retired there soon afterwards.

For several years before the family moved away, Desmond's wife, Joanna Gillespie, sat on the Newcastle School Board. She was also a member of the Miramichi Hospital Board. She, a daughter, and a son were Desmond's survivors in 1942. The son, Dr Francis J. Desmond Jr, was an ear, eye, nose, and throat specialist in Moncton until his tragic death in a highway accident in 1964.