Memorable Manitobans: Thomas Glendenning Hamilton (1873-1935)

Thomas Glendennign Hamilton Click to enlarge

Physician, MLA (1916-1920), psychic researcher.

Born at Agincourt, Ontario on 27 November 1873, son of James Hamilton and Isabella Glendenning, he was brought to Saskatoon by his parents at age 10, moving to Winnipeg in 1891. He was educated at Winnipeg Collegiate Institute and the University of Manitoba Medical School. He practiced medicine in Winnipeg for many years.

Hamilton served as a Winnipeg School Board trustee from 1905 to 1915. He was elected as the MLA for Elmwood in 1915, replacing H. D. Mewhirter, and was active in much reform legislation of the Norris government, including mother’s allowances. He was chosen President of the Manitoba Medical Association (1921-1922) and was President of the University of Manitoba Alumni Association in 1921. Around 1921, he began psychic research, and many visitors to the city, including Arthur Conan Doyle, attended his seances. His psychic research included attempts to photograph “ectoplasms” emanating out of mediums. He founded the Winnipeg Society for Psychic Research in 1931.

In 1906, he married Lillian May Forrester at Winnipeg.

After his death in 1935, Hamilton’s son published the records of some of his experiments as Intention and Survival (1942). His extensive papers, including the photographs from his experiments, are at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

See also:

Psychic Research in a Winnipeg Family: Reminiscences of Dr. Glen F. Hamilton by James B. Nickels
Manitoba History, Number 55, June 2007.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Adventures in Winnipeg by Michael W. Homer
Manitoba History, Number 25, Spring 1993

Sources:

The Story of Manitoba by F. H. Schofield, Winnipeg: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J. M. Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 24 November 2012

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