Cluny MacPherson

Who was Cluny MacPherson?

Cluny MacPherson, MD was a medical doctor and the inventor of the gas mask.

During the First World War the German army used poison gas for the first time, against Allied troops at Ypres, France in 1915. A soldier's only protection was to breathe through a handkerchief or other small piece of fabric soaked in urine.

Out of necessity, Doctor Cluny Macpherson quickly came up with the idea of a gas mask made of fabric and metal. Using a helmet taken from a captured German prisoner, he added a canvas hood with eyepieces and a breathing tube. The helmet was treated with chemicals that would absorb the chlorine used in the gas attacks. After a few improvements, Cluny Macpherson's helmet became the first gas mask to be used by the British army.

This Newfoundlander's invention was the most important protective device of the First World War, protecting countless soldiers from blindness, disfigurement or injury to their throats and lungs. Gas masks are worn by millions of soldiers around the world today.

Macpherson received his medical education from Methodist College and McGill University. MacPherson started the first St. John Ambulance Brigade in Newfoundland after working with the St. John Ambulance Association.