EDWARD AINSLIE BRAITHWAITE, M.D., L.M., C.C..
PIONEER DOCTOR AND FREEMASON OF THE WEST
by O.P.Thomas P.D.D.G.M.
When contemplating the history of Western Canada, one of the features that seem to stand out so definitely is the accomplishments that have been achieved as the result of the efforts and initiative of certain individuals. This brief history is based on the life of one of the outstanding pioneers of the west, particularly, Alberta, Dr. Edward Ainslie Braithwaite.
A little over three hundred years ago, King Charles II granted a charter to a group of men interested in the fur trade. The articles of incorporation were drawn up on April 18, 1670, and the charter was granted on May 2, 1670. It was entitled "An Incorporation of Prince Rupert, Duke of Albemarle, Earl of Graven ...... into one body politique by the name of Governors and Adventurers trading into Hudson Baye." When this company was given its charter, in addition to getting the right to trade into this country, they agreed to endeavour to find the North-West Passage, and, also to discover as much as possible, the nature of the country which was included in the original Charter. One of the things that is noted, in the first eighty-four years of the Hudson Bay Company, there was only one man who struck out into the interior. Each year the Governor of the Company received an annual instruction from London: "choose out from among our Servants such as are best qualified with Strength of Body and the Country Language, to travel and to penetrate the country... For their encouragement we shall plentifully reward them." It is doubtful whether any servant of the Company would have been encouraged to venture into this unknown land, unless a threat to their trading volume had not entered into the picture. The French had been sending traders and Cover de Bois out for many years, from New France. These hardy men had gone to the Indians and done their trading with them directly. The Hudson Bay Company, on the other hand, had established forts or "Factories," usually at the mouths of the rivers which emptied into Hudson Bay. They encouraged the Indians to bring their furs to them. Now, however, the opposition were going to the Indians and encouraging them to trade nearer their homes. This made great inroads in the volume of trade with the Hudson Bay Company. So, in an attempt to remedy the situation, and, at the same time, follow the instructions from the Head Office in London, Henry Kelsey set forth in 1690 to see what lay beyond the margin of the Hudson By, and to encourage the Indians there to come down to the Bay to trade. After traveling through the timber country in which there were many rivers and lakes, he came, at last, to look upon the seemingly limitless plain land dotted with innumerable shaggy animals, the Bison, or "Buffalo" of the vast prairie land which form a large part of the present Canada. Thus, as the result of this man's work the Great Prairie Land of Western Canada became known.
After the second decade of the 18th century the Hudson Bay Company was finding more of its trade threatened with the opposition of the French traders, who had followed in the footsteps of La Verendrye, in 1731. Eventually they had built forts inland to get the trade from the Indians. During the period from 1754 to 1774 they had sent inland sixty expeditions. In 1754, Anthony Henday went across the prairies by way of the Carrot River as far as they could paddle, then across to near where is now Saskatoon and on across the South Saskatchewan River, on towards the North Saskatchewan, then beside it to the Battle River, and thence along the Battle River to strike mostly west until some miles west of what is now Innisfail. Here he beheld the Shining Mountain, which we now call the Rockie Mountains. Before this he had been received by the Blood Indians, a branch of the Blackfoot Confederacy, with whom the Hudson Bay Company traders wanted to do business. Here, he found that these Indians used horses for transportation and scorned the use of the canoe. When Henday tried to interest them in coming down to the Hudson Bay, by canoe, with their furs, they refused the suggestion. So, again, one man contributed much to the opening up of this country. As a result of the work of Kelsey, and also the intrusion of the "carpet-bagger" traders from the St. Lawrence River area; and, now, by the information Henday was able to give to the Company, trading posts were established in more and more areas of the West. Cumberland House was built by the Hudson Bay Company on the Saskatchewan River in 1774. There had been other smaller posts by the opposition traders. Individuals like Samuel Hearne spent a great deal of time and suffered many privations so that more could be known of this country, particularly the Artic area. Alexander Mackenzie, after many trials and disappointments, showed how it was possible to get across the Rocky Mountains, and to the Pacific Coast by an inland route. Simon Fraser in following the river named after him, showed another route to the Pacific, and was the fore-runner of the great railway routes we have over this rugged terrain. Of course, even these results could not have been obtained if it had been for the painstaking work of another individual who showed a short route to the Columbia River and the Pacific, but who above all made accurate and detailed maps of this vast country, David Thompson. From these works the fur trading companies established centres of trade and, later, of population throughout this seemingly boundless country.
Another individual who had a tremendous influence on the economic condition of this unknown country was Lord Selkirk. When he saw the condition in which crofters had been placed, in his home land of Scotland, as a result of the Enclosures, and the Industrial Revolution he could visualize these industrious farmers on the plains of the West, seeding and reaping great harvests and being able to live their lives in the independent way that had always desired. Against a great deal of criticism within his own Directors and that of the fur traders both with the Hudson Bay Company and the North West Trading Company he preserved and the Red River Colony came about. This, of course, opened new economic opportunities in the West, as well as causing a change in the conditions of life among these people. While these individuals had led to the country becoming known and later, being settled, a great change took place in the way the population who had been here before lived. To add to the troubles, across the boundary to the South, a great expansion was taking place as the theory of Manifest Destiny was applied. The attitude of traders and settlers below the 49th parallel and to the north of it was quite different. Whiskey traders made their way into the prairies of what is now Alberta. They caused a considerable trouble to the traders who had been here for such a log time. They attempted to denude the prairies of the buffalo for their own benefit. At the same time, they supplied a great deal of liquor to the Indians and when they had tried to degrade them in this way, used this as an excuse to attempt to exterminate them. The attitude of many of these nefarious traders was that "the only good Indian is a dead one." From this attitude, the massacre near where Fort Walsh was afterward located took place. This was probably the main cause of the coming into being of the North West Mounted Police. When this Force was organized it was largely because of the excellent choice of leaders that they wore not only able to establish law and order, but to make them in their troubles. Troubles they had, of course, because of the influx of white people into the prairie country, with the resultant decimation of their main source of food, the buffalo, and the fur-bearing animals being pushed farther back when these new people started to farm the land. It is rather difficult to single out all the leaders who helped so much in this work, but men like Commissioner French, Assistant Commissioner J.F.Mcleod, Inspector W.D.Jarvis are a few, It was into this country that Edward Ainslie Braithwaite came, from England, when a young man, and it was in this country that he remained and dedicated his life.
Edward Ainslie Braithwaite was born in Alne, Yorkshire, into a somewhat typical clergyman's family of those Victorian days. One member or the family won fame as a military leader, another became a canon in the Anglican Church, another became a professional man - a well-known doctor in Western Canada, and -yes- there was a "black sheep" in the family who went to the United States when he grew up, Edward Ainslie Braithwaite was born on February 16, 1862. His father, Reverend William Braithwaite was an Anglican clergyman. His mother, Laura Elizabeth, nee Pioou, had been born in St. Helier, Island of Jersey, Channel Islands. When he was eleven years of age, his father died, in Yorkshire, His mother lived until 1916, when she died in Winchester, Hants., England, His brother, Sir Walter Braithwaite predeceased him, after becoming a high ranking officer in the British Army.
Edward was educated at King's College, Bruton, Sommerset, at Victoria College or Jersey and at the United Services College at Westward Ho School in Bideford, Devonshire, where he shared a study with Rudyard Kipling, After this he went on into the study of medicine at King's College Hospital, London England. For reasons of health he was not able to complete his work there. It was thought that he would be in better health in a drier climate. So we find him in the year 1884, coming to Canada, and enlisting in the North-West Mounted Police, in Winnipeg, with the regimental number 1025. He was sent to Headquarters at Regina. Here, he was drilled as any other recruit, and, when his time came, he did the dishes the same as the rest. Breakages were not too frequent, though, as they were made or tin, he used to remark. He was on fatigue duty, helping to rivet the bridge that connected Government house with the Barracks.
In September, 1884, he was made an Acting Hospital Sergeant, and in December of this year he was confirmed in this rank. In March, 1885, the Senior Sergeant told him he was sending him in Medical Charge or Commissioner A.G. Irvine's Column in the historical trek from Regina to Prince Albert, during the Riel Rebellion.
Dr. Braithwaite recalled the event:
"I was neither competent or qualified. Col, Irvine replied ‘Then I must send another doctor', There were only about twelve doctors in the N.W.Territories, and I knew the only man he could get was a man who never drew a sober breath if he could help it. I thought, ‘What a man to leave my comrades to,' so I said, ‘if you will trust me, I will go out and do my best.' So I went.
"On the journey up from Regina to Prince Albert I had twenty-two men snow blind and one frozen from the knees down. I placed his feet in a hose bucket full of water and covered him with a horse blanket in the sleigh. His legs were saved he lost all his toes on both feet. The snow-blinded men were treated with tea leaves. At Humboldt, there was only one house. I took my cripples to it. Just as I got there I heard a voice say, ‘You can't go in there, that is for the Commissioner.'
"I replied, ‘This is for the Hospital.'
"A voice called out, ‘You are quite right Braithwaite, Carruthers (his man) pitch every tent.
The next morning they were told that they had to cross at Clark's Crossing, where half breeds had dug a lot of concealed rifle pits, and it would be very dangerous. They started out and as they went along courier after courier came to them telling them to go to Prince Albert, where there were about 3,000 people, He goes on, in his reminiscences:
"After we had gone eight or ten miles we turned off and went to Prince Albert, where we were received by bonfires and cheers. We rested there one day. On the way up, we camped after dark, had breakfast, and waited for daylight to see we had not left anything. We lost one rifle on our way up."
They left Prince Albert for Fort Carleton the next day, with about two hundred volunteers. Arriving at Carleton his sleigh nearly upset at the gates. Whilst standing there, a man came up and asked him if he was the hospital sergeant. When he replied that he was, he was directed to the guardroom, where his improvised hospital was over the main gate. It is interesting to note in J.P.Turner's "The North-West Mounted Police" he has this to say:
" The wounded men, two of whom were beyond aid other than to make them as comfortable as possible, required immediate attention, and S/Sgt. E.A.Braithwaite improvised a hospital in an upper room above the main gate. Orders were given to pack as many stores as possible in the sleighs, the balance to be destroyed. Beds of hay were made in other sleighs for the wounded."
A number or years ago, Dr. Braithwaite recalled that he had had to pull his instruments in a sleigh on the trip from Regina to Fort Carleton. He also had the following recollections of those days:
"The men from Duck Lake (fight) had just arrived when we got there, eight wounded men. I never had my clothes off for three days and nights, On the third day it was decided to evacuate Carleton. Whilst getting ready, in taking the hay out of the mattresses, some got too near the stove and set the place on fire. In carrying Corporal Gilchrist out, I had the feet, Sgt. Major Dan the head and shoulders. Dan gave a warning shout and in pulling me out, jerked, and the leg came out of its setting. It was set again when we got to Prince Albert.
"One man had been shot in the ribs and could not get out of bed, I told him, ‘Get out or get burnt.'
"When we got to Prince Albert it was found to be a round ‘trade' bullet that, luckily, had run round the rib."
On the trip to Prince Albert they had quite a difficult journey, because of the transportation of the wounded and the hill leading to Prince Albert. They remained in this centre for about three weeks, when they were sent to Hudson's Bay Crossing to bring in some wounded. From here he went to Batoche at the time the last battle was being fought. He arrived for about the last half hour of the fighting. After placing the wounded on a steamer to be taken to the Base Hospital, which was located where Saskatoon is now, he saw Riel, accompanied by an interpreter, and was told it was Riel's cook. After going back to Hudson's Bay Crossing and Fort Carleton, he was ordered back to Regina. On the way, near Touchwood, one of the horses went lame and they had to substitute an ox. At Qu'Appelle they got a replacement for the horse, and, once again, started for Regina, They noticed a large number or Indians, and thinking, at first, that they were going for horses, were not too happy when they found that they were not going for horses but were on the warpath. They had to go very cautiously. Upon his arrival at Regina he found there were about 500 there, instead of the 19 he had left. Among his anecdotes of that time he told of a time when the men got "rambunctious" and he was continually having to repair their injuries after these fights in the barracks. He put one on charge and the man got three months in jail, When S/Sgt, Braithwaite was ordered to go to Wood Mountain and Lethbridge he found that his Head Teamster was the same person he had caused to be incarcerated. While he wondered at first what might happen, he found this man to be the most loyal assistant he could have had, and their friendship continued as long as they both lived. His remark following this is worth repeating:
"This was the spirit of the N.W.M.Police. No matter how tough a man was, he was decent at heart,"
On his return to Regina he was sent to Maple Creek, as Doctor Haultain was off on his honeymoon. After three months he was returned to Regina where he was put in Medical Charge of the Flying Patrol (K Division). After a time at Lethbridge, in 1886, Dr. Mewburn arrived as the Coal Company Doctor. S/Sgt. Braithwaite had been serving in Lethbridge at this time. K Division was transferred from Battleford to Fort Mcleod and he was stationed there, during which time he was the victim of typhoid fever, when an epidemic struck the station. In 1887, he was transferred to Fort Saskatchewan, northeast of Edmonton. As far as Edmonton, they were a full Division:
"....to take part in the Queen's Jubilee. We camped below the Big House which was the Hudson Bay Factor's dwelling. On Sunday, we were marched to the English Church for Service ....
"The next day was the Jubilee. I was appointed Officer Commanding Orderly. My own trooper was taken from me and I got a horse that would not go in the ranks. When the firing started my ‘beautiful' steed bolted. After almost a half a mile I got him back, Major
Griesbach called out to me,
" ‘Look out you will kill someone, (not me) with that horse,'
"When they gave three cheers for the Queen he tried it again but I had him in hand.
"He (Griesbach) started off, (to fire a 21 gun salute) and suddenly stopped to speak to some ladies, I shot past him like I was racing. Finally we arrived at the camp, the Old Hudson's Bay Fort. The Veterinary Sergeant came up to ask me how I liked my mount. I answered him in the language or the day and said I would never ride him again.
"No!' he said, ‘I would not if I was you, He killed a man in Calgary."
While stationed here the duties they were called upon to perform took place over a large territory. On one occasion they had to go to Grouard, on Lesser Slave Lake, about three hundred miles north west of Fort Saskatchewan, to bring in two prisoners, An Indian women had become insane, and, according to Indian rules she had to be killed by her husband and son. They went by team to Athabasca, about a hundred miles. From here they were pulled in boats up the rivers to the Lesser Slave Lake. This lake is about 90 miles long, and is subject to very violent storms. One of these almost cost them their lives. In addition to this hazard, they were stranded one night on a sandbar, on their return. Thus, the difficulties of duty in this area can be seen.
While he was stationed at Fort Saskatchewan he used to ride into Edmonton every other day, attending patients in an office that he had in the Queen's Hotel. While serving in the N.W.M.P. he continued his medical studies at the Manitoba Medical College, which was affiliated with the University of Manitoba. He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Medicine, by the University of Manitoba, in 1890.
He took his discharge from the N.W.M.P. on May 6, 1892, with the rank of Staff Sergeant and came to live in Edmonton, where he went into practice as a Physician and Surgeon. He was appointed acting surgeon to attend to the personnel of the Northwest Mounted Police detachment at Edmonton. He was made the Health Officer of the Town of Edmonton, and, later, the City of Edmonton, in 1892. He was also a Coroner for the North West Territories at Edmonton, and, upon the formation of the Province of Alberta in 1905, he continued in this capacity, becoming the Chief Coroner and Medical Inspector for the Province of Alberta, in 1932. He retired from this office a year before his death, in 1948. His record of nearly fifty-two years as a coroner is unequalled in Canada. He presided at more than eightthousand inquests. The office or coroner and medical inspector has always been a highly responsible one, and, in the early days, with long trips in the most inclement of weather, as well as the dangers or poor roads and the possibility of becoming lost, a highly hazardous one. This can be realized more if you take into consideration the poor conditions for travel in the large area to the north of Edmonton. It is due in a large measure to the indefatigable work of Dr. Braithwaite that this important branch of medical supervision was established so soundly in the Province of Alberta.
While he was a contract doctor with the N.W.N.P. from his retirement from active service, he was appointed full Honourary Surgeon in the Royal North West Mounted Police with all the rights of that Office, in September, 1911. He served with the N.W.M.P., the R.N,W.M.P. and the R.C.M.P. for almost forty-eight years, having been awarded the Long Service Medal in 1927. His association with the R.C.M.P. extended for a period of 65 years.
In 1892 he entered into Private Practice in Edmonton. It is interesting to note that among the many patients that he had in this city, the first native-born (that is, born in Alberta) Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Alberta, A.F. & A.M., first saw the light of day with the assistance of Dr. Braithwaite. When this boy grew up he was Master of Edmonton Lodge7, G.R.A., and had the pleasure and honour of presenting Dr. Braithwaite with his 50-year Jewel. In the early days, with Dr. Whitelaw, who later became the Health Officer for the City of Edmonton when he took over from Dr. Braithwaite, and Dr. Blais, who later became a Senator from Alberta, he used to go to St. Albert, where the first hospital was opened. There was no hospital in Edmonton, itself, for sometime. When the General Hospital was opened in Edmonton he had the first patient who admitted to it. When the rush to the Klondike took place many started out from Edmonton to go there. As the result of this a railway was started to go from Edmonton to the Pacific by way of the Yukon. It was called the Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific. When they started to build it from Strathcona to Edmonton he was appointed Medical Officer. At the time that the Canadian Northern Railway built into Edmonton, in 1905, they decided to buy the E.Y. & P. so as to make a quicker route to Calgary for their passenger service. At the same time, they appointed Dr. Braithwaite as their Medical Officer in Edmonton and he continued in this work until about the time of the First Great War. He was made the first Commissioner of the St. John's Ambulance for the Province. While he had been a coroner for the Province of Alberta, in 1932 he was made Chief Coroner for the Province, as well as Medical Inspector of Hospitals. Because of his work in the medical field, and his interest in the Dominion Medical Council he was chosen to represent Alberta on this Council. He was active in the Canadian Medical Association, being the President for a term. He enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps at the beginning of the First Great War but was injured shortly afterwards and resumed his practice in Edmonton. During this War period he made it a policy of his not to accept any fees from the family of any enlisted man who came to him for medical services, if this man was overseas.
In 1892 Dr. Braithwaite married Jennie E. Anderson, daughter of an Edmonton old-timer, T.A. Anderson, on November 30th. Unfortunately she died in 1914. When the Royal Alexandria Hospital was opened in Edmonton as the City Hospital, many of the furnishings for one of the wards were made by Mr. Braithwaite. He re-married on June 2, 1915, Ruth Somersall of Viking, Alberta.
She survived him, and retired after his death to British Columbia. While his chief interest was Medicine, with the R.C.M.P. running a close second, he took a little interest in politics, being a Conservative, and he was very interested in the Anglican Church, particularly All Saints Cathedral. His work in this regard was seen in the activity he took in this Cathedral. In 1895 he helped lay the foundation of a cathedral on the very site of the church in which his funeral was held. In Masonry he became one of the chief craftsmen, in several branches of the work.
In tribute to his services in the R.N.W.M.P. and in Medicine he was awarded the King's Jubilee Medal in 1935.
He had a long distinguished career in Freemasonry. When he arrived in Edmonton the only Lodge was Edmonton53, G.R.M. Freemasonry in Edmonton had had a rather hesitant beginning. Saskatchewan Lodge17 under the Grand Lodge of Manitoba, which took in all the area that is now Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, had been started before the Riel Rebellion. As the result of this Rebellion and the unsettled conditions around Edmonton they had had to surrender their Charter. When things became more settled, and a steady growth started to take place in Edmonton, another Lodge was formed and is in existence to the present time. This was Edmonton Lodge53, G.R.M.. In January, 1897, another Lodge was formed on the south bank of the North Saskatchewan River, in Strathcona, a town that had sprung up as the result of the Canadian Pacific Railway running trains into it. This Lodge was also under the Grand Lodge of Manitoba and with the assistance of the members of Edmonton Lodge53 became Acacia Lodge66 under the Grand Lodge of Manitoba. It was into Edmonton Lodge53, G.R.M. that Edward Ainslie Braithwaite was initiated on May 19th, 1893, passed on July 7, 1893 and received his Third Degree on September 1, 1893. The interest that he showed in Freemasonry in those days abided with him as long as he lived. He was made Master of Edmonton Lodge53 G.R.M. for the year 1898. In 1899 he was the Grand Steward of the Grand Lodge of Manitoba and was elected the Grand Registrar in 1900. In 1901 he was elected Grand Senior Warden, Deputy Grand Master in 1902, and Grand Master in 1903. He affiliated with Northern Light Lodge10 in Winnipeg, on November 15, 1906, from Edmonton Lodge7, G.R.A..
When the Grand Lodge of Alberta was formed in 1905, the year Alberta became a Province, he was the Senior Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Alberta. He also took an active interest in the Scottish Rite Freemasonry. He had become a member of the Scottish Rite in the Valley of Winnipeg previous to 1904. In 1904 he was a charter member, and the first Thrice Puissant Master of the Lodge of Perfection of the Valley of Edmonton. He was also a charter member of the Mizpah Chapter of the Rose Croix in 1907. In addition to this he was instrumental in the formation of the Alberta Consistory and was the first Commander-in-Chief, in 1910. For his outstanding service to the Scottish Rite he was coroneted 33 degree Honourary Inspector-General at Winnipeg in 1911. He was elected to Active Membership in the Supreme Council at Hamilton in 1918 and on October 25, 1917 was appointed Illustrious Deputy for the Province of Alberta. He held this office until 1945, when he retired because of ill health. At this time he was retired to Past Active Rank. When he passed away, in 1949 he was the oldest member of the Supreme Council for the Dominion of Canada. He was also a member of Al Azhar Temple of the A.A.O.N.M.S..
The message of M.Worshipful Brother Edward Ainslie Braithwaite gave to the Grand Lodge of Manitoba at the Grand Session in 1904 is just as timely to-day as it was then:
"...We find with every rising sun fresh evidence of settlement and of growth; mercantile and financial interests are striving to keep pace with the heavy demand, and the material as well as the spiritual forces in our beloved West are taxed to the utmost of their endeavour. What shall Masonry do for the betterment of the West in this, its magnificent opportunity? Shall not the influence of the members of our Order be for the ever-lasting good till thousands rise with one sound to sing its praise?"
On December 7, 1949, M.Worshipful Brother Dr. Edward Ainslie Braithwaite passed to the Grand Lodge Above, after a long illness, and in spite of the kind ministrations of his beloved wife. The funeral service was held on Saturday, December 10, 1949, at All Saints Cathedral. The Very Reverend A.M.Trendell, Dean of Edmonton, officiated and interment followed in the family plot in the Edmonton Cemetery. There was a large attendance of his Masonic Brethren and a guard of honour was also formed by members of the R.C.M.P., as well as by members of the Masonic Order. Dean Trendell paid a special tribute to his memory, stating that "Doctor Braithwaite made a great and outstanding contribution to the history of Western Canada." His widow survived him, and after living for sometime in Vancouver, is now in Winnipeg.
When we look back over the life of this gentleman and Mason we are struck by the fact that he was truly the personification of brotherly love, relief and truth. In his duty he was meticulous, sympathetic and had a warm sense of humour. An incident comes to mind of the writer as told by the late Medical Officer for the C.N.R. in Edmonton, Dr. Alexander. One Sunday afternoon a passenger train arrived in Edmonton during the day. On this train was a person who had been taken ill. One of the employees of the railway went to the Medical Officer's office to get some help. In this office was a list of the different Medical Officers who had held that position in Edmonton. The employee thought it was a list for emergency calls. At the top of the list was Dr. E.A. Braithwaite. He got the telephone number and called. He did not know that the doctor was over 85 years of age and had long since retired from that work. However, when he called, Dr. Braithwaite called a taxi and went to the station where he administered to the sick person. In the present way of carrying on the practice of medicine, when everyone is sent to the Emergency Ward, this example of attachment to duty is almost astonishing. Such was the way Dr. Braithwaite carried on his duties.
In the field of law and order in the new West his life was exemplary. Yet, there was always the feeling that the "velvet scabbard held a sword of steel." To-day, when we look at the vast organization of the Hospitals in Alberta, at the wonderful progress that has been made and is being made in Medicine, we can get a little glimpse of the problems he had to meet in helping to get these fields organized in such a vast country with so much change that came about in its settlement. It was the whole-hearted effort that he put into improving these things that his real worth is seen. There were times of when he was quite well-off with worldly goods, but his habit of helping anyone who could bring a plausible story cost him much of this. The encouragement he brought to the ill, and the sympathy to the sorrowing will never be forgotten by those who knew him well.
While any movement that was for the good of his neighbours or the country as a whole would always demand his attention and assistance. Such you will find in the Order of St. John's Ambulance, Canadian Medical Association, and, above all in Freemasonry, particularly in Western Canada. As Kelsey, the individualist brought a knowledge of the Prairies, Henday, a knowledge of the Mountains in the West, Hearne, a knowledge of the Artic Regions, Mackenzie, Fraser and Thompson a knowledge of the routes by which the West were opened, Lord Selkirk a knowledge of the value of this land to our economy, so it is true that Dr. Braithwaite brought a knowledge of Materialistic Medicine and spiritualistic Masonry to this West. He was an individual to whom the West, and particularly Alberta is indebted. We, of the present generation, and those who come after are the richer for Dr. Braithwaite's unselfish service. It can be truly said, with the Supreme Council:
"He was a friend whose heart was good,
Who walked with men and understood;
His was the voice that spoke to cheer,
And fell like music on the ear.
His was a hand that asked no fee
For friendliness or kindness done.
And now that he has journeyed on,
His is a fame that never ends;
He leaves behind uncounted friends."