Dr. John Hyde was a man of many Stratford firsts

John Hyde was born in Northern Ireland, studied medicine at Glasgow University in Scotland with David Livingston of African fame as a classmate and emigrated to Embro in Upper Canada (later Ontario) in 1840 before arriving in Stratford in 1848. He was just 29 years old.

Dr. John Hyde (1819-1889) was a doctor in Stratford, but he was more than that. He was a man of many firsts for the little settlement that had been known as Little Thames.

Hyde was the first coroner for the village, its first medical officer of health and its first county jail surgeon. He was later the first school superintendent and first chairman of the Mechanics Institute, the forerunner of the public library. He was the first president of the Perth Mutual Fire Insurance Company, formed in 1863, and instigated the formation of Stratford’s first........

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