Fonds paa-7143 - Valentine Barrow fonds

Valentine E. Barrow was born at Madras, India, where his father, General J.L. Barrow, C.B. was stationed. As a child, he moved to England with his family and spent his early boyhood in southern England and Brittany, France. He was educated at Marlborough College, England, and obtained his medical education at Edinborough University, Scotland in 1891. His first general practice was in 1892 in Uffculme, Devonshire. He married Mary Adelaide Brooks in 1893. He and his family moved to Canada in 1904, settling in Edmonton, Alberta in August of that year. Dr. Barrow opened an office in the Sanderson Block, Jasper Avenue where he practiced medicine in his private practice until the spring of 1907. He was also a member of the Edmonton Masonic Lodge. In the spring of 1907 until October 1907, Dr. Barrow was invited to tour northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories as the medical officer with the Indian Treaty Party. In spring 1908, there was an outbreak of Smallpox in southern Alberta. Dr. Barrow was sent by the Provincial Government to assist the local doctors in treatment, quarantine and vaccination. He was also assigned to locate the source of the outbreak, which he did, and the outbreak was eradicated within six weeks. Later that year, Dr. Barrow was permanently appointed to the Provincial Health Board as Provincial Medical Inspector. In this capacity, he toured most of the province by horse and wagon. In 1916, Dr. Barrow joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps at Sarcee Camp, Alberta. He served overseas beginning in July 1917 and returned to Canada in August 1919, where he resumed his duties as Provincial Medical Inspector. Dr. Barrow retired from the Civil Service in 1925 and entered into private practice in Whitecourt, Alberta. He retired from active practice in 1933.