Plant pathologist.
Born at Middle Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia on 12 November 1892, son of Samuel Hanna (1848-1926) and Mary Archibald McCurdy (1859-1918), he graduated from Dalhousie University before coming to the University of Manitoba where he worked under the supervision of Reginald Buller.
In 1928, he received the first doctoral degree in Botany issued by the University of Manitoba and the first doctoral degree in western Canada. He later worked as a research scientist at the Dominion Rust Research Laboratory into the 1930s where he published more than fifty scientific papers on the smut diseases of cereals. During the Second World War, he served as the Royal Canadian Air Force representative at Ottawa to the Joint Canadian and American Defence Force. At the time of his retirement in 1959, he was Head of Botany and Plant Pathology at Ottawa.
He and wife Constance Kaulback McLaughlin Miller (?-?) had a daughter, Rosemary Hanna (wife of ? Schouw). He was a member of the Scientific Club of Winnipeg (1929-1953).
In recognition of his military service, he was made a Commander of the British Empire (1946). He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was inducted into the Order of Canada (1969). He received numerous honorary degrees.
He died suddenly at Vancouver, British Columbia on 26 September 1972.
Birth registration, Nova Scotia Vital Statistics.
Death registration, British Columbia Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 29 September 1972, page 29.
William Fielding Hanna, FamilySearch.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 3 October 2025
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