Biography:

Dr. Loftus Robert McInnes was born around 1836 in Nova Scotia.  His parents, John McInnes and the former Mary Hamilton were immigrants from Scotland.  His younger brother Thomas Robert McInnes was born in 1840 in Lake Ainslie, Nova Scotia.

According to the 1872 Ontario Medical Register, Dr. McInnes graduated M.D. from Harvard University in Boston in 1859.  Further he graduated from Victoria College School of Medicine in Coburg on the 3rd of May, 1863.  Dr. McInnes joined the College of Physicians and Surgeons on the 14th of June 1866.  Dr. McInnes continued his studies at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, Scotland and graduated with a Certificate of Midwifery and a Licence of Medicine on the 12th of April, 1868.

Dr. McInnes married Jane Curtis on the the 19th of June, 1864 in Jackson City, Michigan.  Mrs. McInnes was born in Kent, England in 1831.

Dr. McInnes was residing and practicing medicine in the Blenheim area from 1869 until 1873.  Prior to 1874, Dr. and Mrs. McInnes moved to New Westminster, British Columbia.  Shortly after their departure Dr. and Mrs. McInnes were joined in New Westminster by his brother Dr. Thomas McInnes.

An interesting story appears in the May 30th, 1874 issue of the Mainland Guardian (New Westminster newspaper).  It read, “Successful Operation at the R.C. Hospital – On 26th inst., Dr. T.R. McInnes, assisted by his brother L.R. McInnes, removed the injured leg of Mr. (Anthony) Twentyman, who accidentally shot himself at Dog Creek.  It was diseased, so that amputation was a simple necessity; the division from the progress upward of the disease, required to be made at the union of the middle with the lower third of the femur…..This, we are told, is the first operation of the kind at our hospital.”  The patient Mr. Twentyman, recovered and returned to his job as a miller.  (The R.C. Hospital referred to in this article is the Royal Columbia Hospital.)

Dr. Loftus McInnes was the Mayor of New Westminster in 1882.  There is a street named after Dr. Loftus McInnes and Dr. Thomas McInnes in New Westminster.

Dr. Loftus McInnes died on the 14th of May, 1889.  He was buried in St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in New Westminster, British Columbia.

Mrs. McInnes ran a boarding home after his death.  According to the Henderson Gazetteer and Directory, she resided at 221 Columbia Street in New Westminster.  She died on the 19th of May, 1901 and she is buried at the Fraser Cemetery in New Westminster, B.C.

*Dr. McInnes’s younger brother Dr. Thomas Robert McInnes also appears on the Chatham-Kent Physician Tribute website.

**The webmaster is grateful to the New Westminster Archives for the photograph of Dr. McInnes (circa 1882), Item#1HP1476 and Record #19265.  Used with Permission.