IRVINE, WILLIAM HERBERT (1871-1948)

IRVINE, WILLIAM HERBERT, doctor; b. Millidgeville, N.B., 2 Feb 1871, s/o William Irvine and Elizabeth Middlemore Banks; m. 1900, Christian Sarah Elizabeth Fairley, d/o John Fairley and Sarah A. Hughes; d. Fredericton, 17 Nov 1948.

William H. Irvine graduated from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York (MD 1893). In 1895 he was licensed by the Council of Physicians and Surgeons (N.B.) and established a practice in Boiestown. He was the first doctor to settle there, and because Boiestown was experiencing a boom, he enjoyed a prosperous practice. In 1901 he estimated his earnings at $3,000 annually, which was twice the income claimed that year by any other doctor in the county.

Irvine married a Boiestown woman in 1900, but three years later he turned his practice over to Dr Lorenzo Chapman and moved to Fredericton. There he remained for the duration of his career except for a period during World War I when he served overseas with the Canadian forces. Later in life he displayed "some interesting and unusual eccentricities." He was still in practice in 1948, a short time before his death, at seventy-seven years of age. He and his wife, Christian S. E. Fairley, had six children.