HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1975-11-20, Page 15'# d wasiretty�ed in the
tn?nuntyr _' telt if Id win
s fn h e ,teem, L'd. lie happy -
ant to salesman.
ttu. te.thought I was cut out for
that kind. of work, and 1* said 1'd
maks more may in the selling
e. But 1 Wanted to taa doctor.'"
'While fulfilling his lifelong dream,
Fred encountered some hardships
and detours as well as sorne
amusing and heart-warming in-
cidents.
His father's name was Or. Charles
Walden Thompson, and Mary Louise
Green was his mother. His father's
parents were Joshua Thome and
Elizabeth Walden, After the death of
his first wife, Joshua Married
Margaret Stewart, who was a great
aunt of Bill Stewart. Ontario's
ettr ' agrictiiiure i %ii ,stet" .. ••
.
The parents of his mother were
Harriet Frost of Owen Sound and
Reverend Josies Green. a Methodist,
minister, who preached in the days
in which horses were the only means
of transportation. Fred refers to him
as :a "saddle bag minister" and
interjects, "Imagine haSring Iwo
grandfathers named Joshua and
Josias i"
Fred was the eldest of three
children, having one brother,
Charles, and a sister, Marian.
Although he was only two -years -old
when his family moved to Clinton
from Granton, he remembers the
move. While his parents shopped for
furniture, he stayed with a
babysitter named Mrs. Juner. She
raised canaries, -and he can still hear
those birds singing, He also recalls
the cookies she fed him whenever he
got fussy.
Later he attended Clinton Public
School and Clinton Collegiate. 141s
first Public School principal was
Mr:. Locke, whom the students
called "Jimbo." Another principal
was Mr. John Hartley. Fred passed
his entrance exams in 1910 at the -age
of thirteen. Then he entered Clinton
Col,Iegiate, where he obtained part of
his matriculation and part of a
teaching course.
World War I postponed his
university plans; he enlisted in 1915.
Both he and his brother were
overseas when their mother died in
1918. In 1920 their father married
Lucy Stevensr Clinton, teacher,
who taught Fred -in Public School
and in Sunday SC.
Fred • sailed home in 1919. While
abt and the ship, he underwent
surgerY for appendicitis. Under
similar circurnstances, most people
died It those days, but he was for -
lunette. When he arrived home, the
Senate at Education gra'ted him
matrtculatlon, and in the'all of 1919,
he enrolled in a , five year medical
at Western University in'
l included two years of
itern'shlp . and " one year of
Each student rived
.ties:i treining in obstetrics,
�tdrten disease** medicine,
ther d pa t G
tin
his
dyed.
However
him with! tit
When- Dry': Tnto
Lore him
experimental anlntels he n.
vacated h s Western p! s The
the story
is now histo ry°
Early in 11* + c rse. Fred
developed diphtheria and b+ me a
patient in Vi ori ..H pttal. One of
11* student nursetr:assigned to his
ward was. Alice Sara Crooks of
Marthavilie near Petrolia. who was,
destined to become Ctrs. Fred
Thompson.
His class originally numbered 39.
but 13 Members quit for various
reasons during the first year, and
two More dropped out in the next
four years. One fellow developed
sleeping sickness. He later married
ay�nur�se, whoencouraged him to
complete his studies. Now
el'eiebrr tes. the g ,Cuatlo. an-
niversary with , his initial
classmates, although he received his
degree at a later date.
The class had the distinction of
including the university's first
female medical graduate. Kathleen
Braithwaite. She married one of her
classmates, Dr. Sanborn, and the
husband and wife team practiced in
Windsor,
Fred's father died on February 10,
1923 and both ' Fred and Alice
graduated" in 1924 They were
married on March 6, 1925, and
moved to Clinton' on August 1 of the
same year. They remodelled a house
on Ontario Street to provide space
for an office, a dispensary and a
waiting room. Their home is now
over 100 years old.
Their three children, Charles.
Alice and Mary, were born in
Clinton. Both girls followed in their
mother's footsteps, becoming
registered nurses, Alice trained at
Victoria Hospital in `London, and
Mary'giraduated from St, Joseph's.
The first. .baby "Ooc" Thompson
de?vexed in Clinton was Jack
Tyndall, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy
Ryndall. He believes his father
delivered the Tyndalis' older
children, Lorne and Madeline,
A family physrician usually began
by caring for an :expectant mother;
later he tended the mother, father
and baby.' until the whole family
came to him. Building a practice
was a slow procedure, but "Doc"
Thompson's clientele developed. into
a large one.
World War I interrupted his
practice in Clinton, and before the
outbreak of fighting; he Ioined the
Huron County militia. He was
president of the medioal board that
examined rrecrr ils in Listowel and
Walkerton. One morning. when he
visited the Listowel armories, he
heard the radio broadcast of th .
declarati of war He enlisted Yn
1939.
He was appointed second in
command of .Medical District leo. 1
#i London. Later he was transferred
to second in `wand of the lith
Field Ambulance in Quelph. On the
dight tit` the attack on Pear& Har -
n
burr he was sent overs. For
Mit hid duty was stationed in
tta til t r to
nada t'h u ht old ' me
e but the army tad dlffe edt
With tiis ever present stethoscope around his neck, "Doc"
Fred Thompson of ' Clinton is one of a dying breed of rural
general practitioners, Ityear veteran of family
medicine. Dr. Thompson has b utght Haronites into the
world since he has set up his practise. Although he is
slowing down, Dr. Thompson still 'sees patients, (News -
Record photo)
He was given a choice of three
appointments: Commandinglafficer
of the. Medical Corps at Ipperwash;
president of the medical board at
London's military hospital; or
Commanding Officer of the military
hospital in Lethbridge, Alberta. He
.chose the last option,
Lethbridge housed an internment
camp that sometimes held 15,E •
German prisoners of war. The base
included' two hospitals - an inside
hospital and an outside hospital. The
latter handfed the most serious
cases. Through theeftorisof the Red
Cross, some p.o w.s return, to
Germany from the outside hospital.
The army discharged Dr.
Thompson .in 19 and 1* resumed
ps f
hiswork it Clint nthe , interim.
wo Inhe
Or. Beatty took 'over his practice in
1940, paying 51 a day for the
business. When he thought Dr.
Thompso# was returning in 1942,
however, heleft. Thi s- 11 office
sto'eropty tori I years.
In summing up his war ex-
perience. "Doc" Thompson con-
cludes. "When the next war starts.
I'm ioining the Salvation army."
1'n 1975. he Maintains his practice
on a small scale and explain%, "All
my life I've been in the business of
communicating with people , and it`s
hard to quit. 1 was raised in a"doc-
tor"s home, and 1 liked ministering
to the sick.
'*Myr brother didn't want to be a
doctor; he said he didn't ward
anyone calling him in the middle of
the night.' But I did 't mind because
I thought I. was peing a useful
service, and I guess 1 was." Doc
Thompson said,
He recalls with pride his ?iter's
medical record and' ache " a eats.
f
Or. char% Thomson�tribued
the Initial large donation the
hospital elevator t`uid.
is they carry
bath stretc tt n
with a doctor at each end of the
stretcher. It tore the heart right out
of Dad."
Countless changes have occurred
since then. During 50 yrs in the
medical profession, Or. Fred
Thompson has made many ob-
servations.
140 opposed Ontario's medical
insurance plan and still disapproves
of the idea. He contends people
aren't receiving as good delivery of
health service as they were before
the introduction of OHS1P, OMS$P
and OHIP. Another mailer problem
today is that doctors are too busy to
give personal attention to each
patient. With so many group
practitioners, the patient seldom
sees the same physician; he wilt
whomever is on calk
At the age of Mend with SO years
of experience in . practicing
medicine, is .,Doca
Thompson
consideringr•tl'reentS
."Retirement? t's a dirty word!"
he exclaims emphatically.