William Mackenzie McLeod

Who was William Mackenzie McLeod?

William Mackenzie McLeod was a Canadian physician and politician.

Born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, McLeod was educated at Sydney Academy and Dalhousie University. He took his medical course in New York City at Bellevue Hospital Medical College graduating in 1875. In 1889 and 1890 he also took special courses in the diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat at New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital. From 1875 until 1879, he practiced his profession in Sydney, when he entered the political field and was elected to the Canadian House of Commons succeeding his brother, Hugh McLeod, to represent the riding of Cape Breton. A Liberal-Conservative, he was defeated in 1882. In 1883, he was appointed Medical Superintendent of Quarantine at Sydney. In 1886, he organized the Sydney Battery of Field Artillery, of which he was the Major in command.

He was president of the Cape Breton Medical Society, and a member of the Nova Scotia Medical Society. In religion he was a Presbyterian, the son of Rev. Hugh McLeod, DD, who came from Tain, Scotland in 1849 and was a Free Church leader in Mira Ferry, Cape Breton; in 1877 was elected as the third Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.