Frances Gertrude McGill

Frances Gertrude McGill (November 18, 1882 – January 21, 1959) was a Canadian forensic pathologist, criminologist, bacteriologist, allergologist and allergist. Nicknamed "the Sherlock Holmes of Saskatchewan" for her deductive skills and prominent role in police investigations and court cases,[1] she influenced the development of forensic pathology in Canadian police work and was internationally noted for her expertise in the subject.

Frances Gertrude McGill
Born
Frances Gertrude McGill

(1882-11-18)November 18, 1882
Minnedosa, Manitoba
DiedJanuary 21, 1959(1959-01-21) (aged 76)
Winnipeg, Manitoba
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Manitoba
OccupationForensic pathologist, criminologist, bacteriologist, allergologist, allergist
Known forPioneering the use of forensic pathology in Canadian police work
Relatives

After completing her medical degree at the University of Manitoba in 1915, McGill moved to Saskatchewan and became the provincial bacteriologist and then the provincial pathologist. She worked extensively with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and local police forces for more than thirty years, and was instrumental in establishing the first RCMP forensic laboratory. She directed the RCMP laboratory for three years, and trained new RCMP recruits in forensic detection methods. After retiring in 1946, McGill was appointed Honorary Surgeon for the RCMP by the Canadian Minister of Justice, becoming one of the first official female members of the force, and she continued to act as a consultant to the RCMP up until her death.

Alongside her pathological work, McGill operated a private medical practice for the diagnosis and treatment of allergies. She was acknowledged as a specialist in allergy testing, and doctors across Saskatchewan referred patients to her care.

McGill is a member of the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame. After her death, McGill Lake in northern Saskatchewan was named in her honour.

Early life and education

Frances Gertrude McGill was born on November 18, 1882[2][3][note 1] in Minnedosa, Manitoba.[5][6] Her parents were Edward McGill, whose family had emigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1819, and Henrietta Wigmore, also of Irish descent.[4] Henrietta was a former school teacher, and had once circumnavigated the globe while travelling between teaching jobs in Canada and New Zealand. Edward was active in local politics and agricultural societies, and worked as the Post-Master in Minnedosa.[3] Frances McGill had two older brothers, Herbert and Harold, and one younger sister named Margaret. Harold eventually became a doctor, serving as a medical officer during the First World War, while Margaret became a nurse and joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps.[4]

Frances McGill in 1917

In mid-1900, when McGill was seventeen, her parents accidentally drank contaminated water at a county fair. They became ill with typhoid fever, and both died in September within ten days of each other.[3] McGill's eldest brother, Herbert, took over the running of the family farm until his younger siblings had completed their basic schooling.[4]

McGill trained as a teacher at the Winnipeg Normal School, and taught summer school for a few years in order to fund her further education.[7][5] Although she originally considered becoming a lawyer, she decided to study medicine instead.[5][8] She was able to finance much of her studies through scholarships.[4] In 1915, McGill completed her medical degree at the University of Manitoba, receiving the Hutchison Gold Medal for highest academic standing,[9][10] the Dean's Prize, and an award for surgical knowledge.[8] She was one of the first female medical students to graduate from the university.[7] McGill served her internship at the Winnipeg General Hospital and subsequently attended the provincial laboratory of Manitoba for post-graduate training.[9] After observing her professor, Dr. Gordon Bell, performing autopsies for the police, McGill completed training in pathology to pursue her new interest.[11]:3

Career
Streetcar on bridge, looking south towards the Saskatchewan Legislative Building where McGill's bacteriologist office was located (c. 1935)

Bacteriologist

Attracting attention for her growing expertise in bacteriology,[5] McGill was named provincial bacteriologist for the Saskatchewan Department of Health in 1918.[9] She moved to Regina for the job, where her new office and lab were located in the Saskatchewan Legislative building. She was soon responsible for handling local outbreaks of the 1918 flu epidemic. Working quickly with her colleagues, McGill produced anti-flu vaccinations for more than 60,000 Saskatchewan residents.[11]:5–7

McGill also treated returning First World War soldiers for venereal disease.[12] Setting up clinics across the province, McGill directed staff to conduct the newly-developed Wassermann test to detect syphilis in patients.[11]:8

Pathologist

In 1920, McGill became provincial pathologist for Saskatchewan, and two years later she became director of the provincial laboratory.[7][9] McGill now dealt with cases of suspicious death, working extensively with local police forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Her investigations required travelling in all sorts of environments, and McGill sometimes used a snowmobile, dog sled or float plane to reach the necessary crime scenes.[9] In a single year, she made as many as forty-three excursions to investigate crimes, even travelling to remote northern locations in the Arctic Circle.[8]

McGill working in laboratory c. 1942

McGill gained a reputation among law enforcement officers as a skilled and meticulous criminologist,[9] and was fondly called "Doc" by members of the police force.[12][13] Her personal motto was reportedly "Think like a man, act like a lady and work like a dog."[5] She was known for handling the sometimes gruesome nature of her work by maintaining a good sense of humour,[5] and was a formidable, no-nonsense witness in court cases.[8] During her court testimonies, McGill sometimes encountered young Saskatchewan defense lawyer John Diefenbaker – who would later become Prime Minister of Canada – and the strong-willed pair often sparred verbally. In one court hearing, McGill told Diefenbaker: "You ask me sensible questions and I will give you sensible answers".[11]:90

Earning the unofficial nickname "the Sherlock Holmes of Saskatchewan" for her work,[1][5] she was recognized by the RCMP for her "untiring" efforts and "excellent" service, acknowledged in annual reports by RCMP Commissioners James Howden MacBrien[14] and Stuart Taylor Wood.[15] During the Great Depression of the 1930s, McGill used her resourcefulness to complete her work as provincial pathologist with dramatically fewer resources and a much smaller staff. In 1933, she managed to stay within a budget of $17,000 for testing work that would normally have cost more than $122,000.[11]:39

Volunteering hundreds of additional work hours on evenings and weekends, McGill assisted the RCMP in establishing their first official laboratory for forensic detection, which opened in 1937. Despite her forensic experience, she was not offered the position of director for the lab.[11]:127 The laboratory took over a substantial portion of McGill's forensic pathology workload,[16] and over the next several years she concentrated on other projects such as developing a polio serum and becoming a specialist in allergy research. As her expertise in allergy testing gained wider notice, doctors across the province began sending their patients to McGill. She coped with the growing demands on her time by obtaining an assistant and opening a private after-hours allergy clinic located at her apartment.[11]:129–131

McGill retired from her job as provincial pathologist on November 17, 1942,[11]:136 having conducted more than 64,000 laboratory examinations over the course of her civil service career.[17] She continued working at her allergy clinic two days per week, and spent more time on outdoor activities and trips with friends. Several months afterwards, McGill decided to start a new project providing vaccinations for preschool children, and subsequently set up inoculation clinics at schools across Regina.[11]:136

RCMP forensic lab

In 1943, when the director of the RCMP's forensic laboratory died in an airplane accident, McGill was called in to serve as a replacement.[5][9] She accepted the position, but only on the condition that it was part time, allowing her to continue operating her allergy clinic.[11]:138 She conducted investigations across Saskatchewan.[5]

She also provided lectures and training in pathology and toxicology to new police officers and detectives, teaching skills related to identifying blood samples, studying crime scenes, and properly collecting and preserving evidence.[9] In her advice to students, McGill emphasized the importance of critical thinking: "Don't believe all the death certificates you see. There's no reason why a man with heart disease can't have died of strychnine poisoning."[18]

Retirement and consultancy

In 1946, McGill formally retired from directing the RCMP forensic laboratory. On January 16, 1946, she was named Honorary Surgeon to the RCMP, appointed by Canadian Minister of Justice Louis St. Laurent.[7][5][11]:142 She was the first woman to receive the title, and the first female doctor to be publicly acknowledged as a member of the RCMP. McGill continued to work for the RCMP on a special consulting basis, and occasionally gave lectures and exams for police officers and investigators. She was such a thorough and articulate instructor that her teaching notes were once compiled for use in a student textbook in 1952.[11]:143

Her forensic work – and her reputation as one of the few female members of the RCMP – continued to attract notice across Canada and overseas. In 1945, McGill had been offered a job as pathologist at an English university, which she considered but ultimately turned down.[11]:149 A few years later, however, she travelled to England and visited Scotland Yard, where she was permitted to inspect their forensic laboratories.[11]:150[6] In 1956, after an American detective magazine ran a story on her work, McGill received a request for assistance addressed to "Dr. Frances McGill, Canada’s Famous Pathologist, Regina, Canada.” The letter was from a woman in New York City whose brother had died under suspicious circumstances; no autopsy had been performed, and the woman had struggled to get the answers she wanted. Although McGill could not assist directly in the matter, she responded with advice on how to contact the FBI and arrange to have the body exhumed.[11]:170-171

Cases and methodology

McGill's work sometimes allowed her to solve murders that had gone uninvestigated. During one year, she performed post-mortem examinations of thirteen exhumed bodies, and discovered that five of the bodies were murder victims.[18] In one case – not initially suspected as a crime at all – McGill helped prove that a woman had poisoned several relatives.[13]

The Lintlaw Case

In April 1932,[19] farmer Joseph Shewchuk was found dead from a gunshot wound at his home in Lintlaw, Saskatchewan. Police found bloodstains all across the room – presumed evidence of a violent struggle – and also located a rifle hidden in a nearby wheat bin. The local doctor deemed it suspicious and ruled out suicide, and police arrested a neighbour who had been unable to satisfactorily explain several bloodstains on his coat.[13]

When McGill later arrived on the scene, however, she discovered that the local doctor had not completed a full autopsy on the body.[11]:26 She ordered the body exhumed and did a new examination herself. From clues such as the distinctly awkward angle of the wound, she concluded the victim had taken his own life.[13] Although the previous doctor had decided that the victim must have died instantaneously, McGill found evidence in Shewchuck's digestion system that suggested he had lived long enough to move around his house and hide the rifle, obscuring cause of death.[11]:26

Witnesses confirmed that Shewchuk had struggled with depression, and it was found that Shewchuk had borrowed the rifle himself the day before his death. The magistrate dismissed the case, and the accused neighbour – whose suspicious bloodstains were actually from his son's nosebleeds – was released. The Lintlaw Case had a strong impact on McGill's reputation with police, and the RCMP subsequently made it their policy to call her in immediately whenever foul play was suspected.[11]:26

The Northern Trapper Case

In November 1933, a trapper named Oskar Schwab was reported missing northeast of Nipawin. A police investigation uncovered traces of blood in his shack. Although the blood's origin was initially uncertain – since Schwab had made a living trapping and skinning animals – McGill established that blood stains at the head of Schwab's mattress were indeed human, and police located a bullet lodged in the log wall nearby.[18]

The following February, police arrested Schwab's former trapping partner Thomas Kisling, who admitted to killing Schwab but subsequently tried to argue that it had been accidental or in self defence.[20] Investigators uncovered Schwab's remains and found that the trapper's skull had been shattered into dozens of pieces by the gunshot. After completing an autopsy, McGill took the skull fragments back to her laboratory and painstakingly reconstructed it. Her work, revealing the bullet's clear trajectory and black lead markings, showed that Schwab had been shot in the back of the head while sleeping.[11]:88

When McGill testified in Kisling's trial, she produced the carefully reconstructed skull from her handbag and "a gasp went through the crowd" as court watchers realized what she was holding.[11]:88 Court reporter Ken Liddell later recalled in one of his columns that he had seen McGill bring out similar evidence in other court cases with "all the drama of a magician."[21]

The South Poplar Case

During a period of cold weather, a hitchhiker was found frozen to death in a southern Saskatchewan field, his skull apparently fractured by a blow to the head. A local doctor ruled it murder and sent the victim's remains to McGill's laboratory for further examination.[13] When McGill examined the skull, however, she concluded that the man's bone structure had been weakened by a childhood case of rickets. A truck driver admitted to giving the hitchhiker some alcohol, which had increased blood flow to the man's brain – and after his death, the below-freezing temperatures had caused those fluids to expand, resulting in the apparent skull fracture.[11]:23

The cause of death for the hitchhiker had been a simple heart attack.[13] McGill ruled out foul play and ensured that police did not spend time searching for non-existent suspects.[11]:23

Personal life

McGill was often private, preferring not to discuss her personal life, but many acquaintances believed that she had once lost a boyfriend to battle in the First World War.[11]:37 She enjoyed spending time with her siblings and other relatives whenever possible. From 1931–33, her nephew Edward came to live with her in Regina while he built up his savings for university education, and he later cited her guidance and advice as a major influence on his life.[11]:43

She enjoyed hosting meals and playing games of bridge with her close friends,[12] and she was known as a good storyteller.[3] She was an avid equestrian, often going horseback riding outside the city.[12] McGill's other pastimes included fishing, camping, and shooting,[16] and in 1917 she won a prize in a women's rifle competition.[22] For bedtime reading, she often indulged in crime fiction.[11]:43 During the Second World War, McGill supported the war effort by knitting wool socks for soldiers who were fighting abroad.[5] She was a member of the Saskatchewan Medical Society, the Canadian College of Physicians and Surgeons,[10][23] the Business and Professional Women's Club, and the Regina Women's Canadian Club.[9]

McGill was a member of the Anglican Church.[10] She was Conservative in her politics,[13] and eventually became a strong supporter of John Diefenbaker's political career as he ran for parliament and then Prime Minister. In 1958, despite serious health issues, McGill discharged herself from hospital and went home to place her vote for Diefenbaker in the federal election.[11]:160

She traveled extensively whenever possible, visiting New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, the West Indies and multiple European countries.[18]

Death and legacy

After being diagnosed with breast cancer and later pleurisy,[11]:155 McGill died on January 21, 1959,[7] in Winnipeg.[5][10][23] After her cremation, her ashes were scattered by family at a favourite plot of land in Cherry Valley, Manitoba.[11]:161 According to an editorial in the Leader-Post, McGill's extensive professional contributions and lasting relationships with friends and colleagues had earned her "a measure of immortality" surpassed by few other Canadians.[24]

McGill Lake, located in northern Saskatchewan, is named in her honour.[7][13] She is a member of the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame.[25]

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gollark: Well, you're a heretic, as you are publicly dissenting from the officially accepted dogma of the Ericist religion.
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gollark: n. A person who holds controversial opinions, especially one who publicly dissents from the officially accepted dogma of the ~~Roman Catholic Church~~ Ericist religion.

See also

Notes
  1. Although some sources alternatively cite McGill's birth year as 1877, the 1882 date is further supported by McGill's birth record (freely available for viewing online via the Manitoba Vital Statistics Agency). In addition, McGill's older brother Harold was born in 1879,[4] which makes the 1877 birthdate for Frances McGill illogical.

References
  1. "Saskatchewan's Frances Gertrude McGill on Canadian money? | CBC News". CBC. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  2. Petersen, Myrna (2006). "McGill, Frances (1982-1959)". In Leger-Anderson, Ann (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. University of Regina, Canadian Plains Research Center.
  3. McGill, Eve (1979). "Edward McGill of Fairmount". In Averill, Verna (ed.). Basswood 1878-1978: A Century of Living. Basswood and District Historical Society. pp. 204–206.
  4. McGill, Harold (2007). Medicine and duty: the World War I memoir of Captain Harold W. McGill, Medical Officer, 31st Battalion, C.E.F. Norris, Marjorie, Calgarie: University of Calgary Press. pp. xiii–xx
  5. McLeod, Susanna (April 24, 2013). "Canada's 'Sherlock Holmes of Forensic Science'". Kingston Whig-Standard. Archived from the original on April 30, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  6. "Dr. Frances McGill Honorary Member of RCMP Dies". The Ottawa Journal. January 24, 1959. p. 5. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  7. The encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. University of Regina. Canadian Plains Research Center. Regina: University of Regina, Canadian Plains Research Center. 2005. p. 584. ISBN 0889771758. OCLC 57639332.CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. Merna., Forster (2011). 100 more Canadian heroines : famous and forgotten faces. Toronto: Dundurn. pp. 243–245. ISBN 9781554889709. OCLC 718182176.
  9. "Dr. Frances Gertrude McGill". Celebrating Women's Achievements. Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  10. "Miss F. G. McGill, Medical Doctor, Police Lecturer, Dies". Winnipeg Free Press. January 22, 1959. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020.
  11. Petersen, Myrna (2005). The Pathological Casebook of Dr. Frances McGill, Regina: Ideation Entertainment.
  12. Waiser, Bill (May 9, 2017). "History Matters: Canada's first female forensic pathologist helped Mounties solve crimes". Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  13. Carlotta., Hacker (1974). The indomitable lady doctors. Federation of Medical Women of Canada. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin. pp. 198–205. ISBN 0772007233. OCLC 1081912.
  14. MacBrien, J. H. (1935). "Report of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for the year ended March 31, 1935" (PDF). Canadian Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. p. 31.
  15. Wood, S. T. (1949). "Report of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for the year ended March 31, 1949" (PDF). Canadian Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
  16. Pacholik, Barb (June 19, 2017). "Dr. Frances McGill was Saskatchewan's answer to Sherlock Holmes". Regina Leader-Post. Archived from the original on February 4, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  17. "Lake is monument to Dr. McGill". The Leader-Post. February 12, 1959. p. 3. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  18. McGill, Frances; Willock, David (October 22, 1955). "She Solved Murders in the Morgue". The Winnipeg Tribune – Weekend Magazine. 5 (43). pp. 24–25, 27, 30, 39.
  19. "Open Probe in Slaying: Lintlaw Case Reviewed by Coroner". Star-Phoenix. April 26, 1932. p. 3. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  20. "Conflicting Statements in Evidence: Different Versions of Schwab Killing are Told to Court". Star-Phoenix. February 27, 1934. p. 3. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  21. "Ken Liddell's Column". Calgary Herald. May 15, 1975. p. 7. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  22. "Wins Prize in Rifle Competition". The WInnipeg Tribune. May 9, 1917. p. 6. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  23. "Dr. Frances McGill, Crime Pathologist". The Winnipeg Evening Tribune. January 22, 1959. p. 25. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  24. "A Remarkable Woman". The Leader-Post. January 28, 1959. p. 21. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  25. "The Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame – Canada Science and Technology Museum". Ingenium. Archived from the original on February 17, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
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