James Horace King

Who was James Horace King?

James Horace King, PC was a physician and Canadian parliamentarian.

Born in Chipman, New Brunswick, James King was the son of George Gerald King, a businessman and Canadian politician in his own right. The elder King was a Liberal Member of Parliament in the nineteenth century, and a Senator from 1896 until his death in 1928.

The younger King earned his MD from McGill University in 1895. After practicing medicine for a short period in New Brunswick, he moved to the Kootenay region of British Columbia in 1898 serving a large rural territory. In 1910, he attended an international medical conference in Budapest, and played a leading role in establishing the American College of Surgeons in Chicago, serving as a governor of the college. In 1932, he was created a Knight of Grace of the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem for his services to medicine.

In 1903, King was elected as a British Columbia Liberal Party member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly for the riding of Cranbrook and was re-elected in 1907 before leaving provincial politics in 1909 to return to medicine.