Robert George Ferguson, OBE, (12 September 1883 – 1964) was a pioneer in North America's fight against tuberculosis who worked for the introduction of free medical treatment.
As Medical Director, and later as General Superintendent of the Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis League Canada, he achieved many firsts for the province, including
1921, provincial survey of school children: 54% of non-Indigenous children and 92.5% of Indigenous children had positive reactions to tuberculin tests indicating infection or exposure 1929, First province in Canada to provide free treatment of tuberculosis. First province to initiate a vaccination program for its sanatorium personnel (student nurses, 1938) and the First Nations population (infants, 1930). 1941–1947, First province to conduct province-wide tuberculosis surveysCanadian Medical Association Journal April 18, 1964, Vol.90. Furthermore, Ferguson was a pioneer in long-term BCG vaccine research, quite controversial at the time.
Biography Robert George Ferguson was born on 12 September 1883 to Robert Ferguson and Margaret Jane Fisher. The couple had moved from Kincardine township in Ontario, Canada to North Dakota, USA in 1881, in part due to concerns about Margaret's health. Her family had a history of tuberculosis. At the time of R.G.'s birth, the family lived on a farm near Joliette, North Dakota.
In 1902, Robert sent George to Canada to look for a possible land purchase. After traveling to Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton, George recommended the purchase of already cultivated land near downtown Yorkton, a town by a railway line. On his recommendation, Robert purchased three quarter sections of land (the east half of section 27, and the northeast quarter of section 22, township 25, range 4) on July 21, 1902. The following summer, in 1903, the family moved to the homestead near Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada.
George's education was intermittent, with some periods of winter schooling interspersed with farm work, farm management and homesteading. He passed his grade 8 exams at age 15, after 3 years of absence. In 1904, at age 20, he began attending Wesley College in Winnipeg, with the goal of high school matriculation (grades 9–12). Following his father's death in 1906, he returned to school to complete his course of studies.
At first Ferguson planned a career in the Church. He carried out mission field work in Alberta in 1908 and 1912. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1910, with a Bronze Medal in Arts, and was selected Senior Stick by classmates. However, his voice was not considered strong enough to support preaching, and in 1912, he enrolled in the Manitoba College of Medicine. In 1915, while still a student, he briefly took over the administration of the Manitoba Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Ninette, Manitoba for David Alexander Stewart. In his final year of medical school Ferguson worked part-time in the laboratory of S. J. S. Pierce, making typhoid vaccine for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). In 1916 Ferguson graduated second in his class in medicine, earning another Bronze Medal. Ferguson's post-graduate work included training at the London Hospital in England, and at Harvard School of Medicine, Harvard University.
His two youngest brothers, Vernon Stewart and Frank Willard had by then enrolled at the same University and subsequently left school to join the CEF. Vernon joined in 1915 and was wounded 12 Oct. 1915 at Ypres as a member of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Highland Light Infantry. He was discharged December 14 1915, received the Mons Star, contracted tuberculosis and died in 1930.<https://ssns.frontiersd.mb.ca/SeniorYrs/Curricula9-12/Grade11/CanadianHistory/RemembranceDay/Soldiers/UnivCo/Ferguson.html> His youngest brother Frank was discharged from the CEF and joined No. 87 Squadron RAF. Frank flew a Sopwith Dolphin and was shot down by Bavarian Ace, Michael Hutterer, near the German-Canadian lines (Marcoyne) on the evening of September 3, 1918. Hutterer was a member of Jagdstaffel 23. Second Lt. Frank Ferguson is buried at Arras Road Cemetery near Roclincourt, France.
Ferguson married Helen Ross of Wynyard, Saskatchewan on July 5, 1916, after a four-year engagement. They had seven children: Robert Ross, Helen (Hart), Margaret (Love, later Fallis), Patricia (Motherwell, later Dyck), Sheelagh (Barrable), John Vincent, and David. John Vincent (Jackie), twin of Sheelagh, died in infancy, on December 9, 1925.
In 1929 RG Ferguson wrote, The Wood Fairies' Christmas Deed for his 6 surviving children. In 2014 this story was published, made available via Amazon with proceeds donated to the Lung Association of Saskatchewan. A short animated feature of the story was filmed and uploaded to YouTube. Ferguson's wife Helen was also an accomplished artist which is detailed in her biography, Her Legacy: The Life and Art of Helen FJ Ross Ferguson (Amazon).
RG Ferguson's children Robert Ross Ferguson, Sheelagh and David served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the second world war. His son in law, Major John Vernon (Jack) Love of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, was killed leading D company of the Regina Rifles Regiment onto Juno Beach at Normandy France, June 6, 1944 (D-Day). Jack Love is buried in Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery. His granddaughter, Sheelagh Cooper (nee Barrable), an entrepreneur and social activist, also received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in King Charles III first New years Honours list in 2023. https://tnnbda.com/his-majesty-the-kings-new-years-honours-list-2023/
Medical career Following graduation Ferguson worked under A. B. Alexander in the Acute Infection Hospital and others in Winnipeg as Assistant Medical Superintendent, replacing Alvin Trotter Mathers. In June 1917, he was hired by Maurice Macdonald Seymour to become the acting medical superintendent of the new Fort Qu'Appelle Sanatorium, which was opened on October 10, 1917. Conditions during the war had fostered both the spread of tuberculosis among soldiers and its detection. In response, the federal government provided new funding towards the completion of the sanatorium and the treatment of returning soldiers. Ferguson initially expected to be replaced within a few months by Lieutenant-Colonel William Malloch Hart, who had done much of the initial organization of the sanatorium before enlisting in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Hart, however, submitted an official letter of resignation in November 1919, opening the way for Ferguson to become the permanent medical superintendent.
Ferguson remained at "Fort San" for 31 years. He was a skilled administrator with a knowledge of economics and the ability to analyze the dire challenge presented by rampant tuberculosis infection in the community. In 1917 the Province of Saskatchewan had the nation's highest incidence of tuberculosis with an annual death rate of 400 cases for a population of 700,000 people (57 deaths per 100,000 people). Another 1000 people per year were estimated to "break down" with the disease, and far more were infected and became contagious, often before realizing that they were ill. Native populations were (and continue to be) particularly affected, as was documented by Peter Bryce as early as the 1900s, and again by Ferguson himself.
Ferguson saw quickly that the only way to break the recurrent cycle of exposure, illness and death was to provide diagnosis, treatment and hospitalization at no cost to the patient. This was a huge political challenge. Ferguson persisted in his efforts, working patiently to gain support from people with tuberculosis, the public, members of the medical profession, and, last but not least, politicians, throughout his career. Ferguson recognized that education was an essential step: he saw the need to develop broad public understanding of tuberculosis disease transmission and support for measures to reduce it.
As one of three members appointed by the Provincial Government to form the Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis Commission in 1921 he wrote the entire report. Nineteen of the report's 22 recommendations were implemented. Chief among them was making the cost of diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis a public responsibility. Upon Ferguson's death in 1964 then Saskatchewan Minister of Health Minister Allan Blakeney said, "The introduction of diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis at public expense was one of the early and essential steps in developing a program of health services for all."
Ferguson painstakingly reviewed the available records relating to illness among First Nations peoples in the Fort Qu'Appelle and File Hill areas and identified a series of epidemics related to increasing contact with the incoming white population. These included pertussis (1887), measles (1890, 1898) and influenza (1890, 1918–1919) in addition to tuberculosis. He actively investigated changes in resistance and related factors as possible explanations for the lack of resistance to disease displayed by First Nations populations. The patterns he saw in his data suggested that resettlement in houses and on reserves was followed by an epidemic rise in tuberculosis cases affecting the entire native population. Deaths peaked in 1886 with 9,000 deaths per 100,000 people, and then dropped, to 3,000 (1895), 2,000 (1901) and 1,000 (1907) deaths per 100,000 people. This suggested the arrival of a disease in a susceptible population, followed by decreasing rates as more resistant individuals survived. Ferguson did not hesitate to relate such illness in First Nations people to the widespread physical, economic and social changes that were impacting them. In October 1928 Ferguson gave a landmark presentation entitled "Tuberculosis Among the Indians of the Great Canadian Plains" at the 14th Annual Conference of the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis at British Medical House, London. It established him as an international authority on tuberculosis. Later on the same trip he attended the Council of the International Union Against TB where the double barred cross of Lorena was adopted as a symbol of the worldwide fight against tuberculosis.
A further achievement in 1928 was integration of the native population into the sanatorium. Saskatchewan, under Ferguson's guidance, was the first province by eight years to fully integrate the native population into sanatoria. Previously they were segregated.
Ferguson found an ally in incoming Premier James G. Gardiner, and on 1 January 1929 the Saskatchewan Sanatoria & Hospitals Act was passed. Saskatchewan became the first province in Canada to make tuberculosis treatment free to all who needed it. As of 1930, Ferguson became director of medical services and general superintendent for all three of the Saskatchewan sanatoria (Fort Qu'Appelle, opened in 1917; Saskatoon, 1925; Prince Albert, 1930). T. W. Hamilton took over the post of medical superintendent at Fort San from 1930–1946.
BCG Research At the time Ferguson began his career at Fort Qu'Appelle, BCG vaccination was controversial. The idea of introducing live tubercle into the human body was considered dubious from perspectives of both health and morality. This grew to a fever pitch in 1930 when 249 infants in Lübeck, Germany were vaccinated with a vaccine which was supposedly BCG but which turned out to be contaminated with virulent tubercle bacillus. Seventy one infants died of tuberculosis as a result. Ferguson initially expressed concern over the proposal to test the BCG vaccine, writing in a private letter to the President of the National Research Council, on 3 January 1931: