Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The British War Medal awarded to Surgeon T. M. Creighton, Royal Navy and Canadian Army Medical Corps, who was reputedly the first Canadian to both enlist and see active service during the Great War - he subsequently moved into private practice in Mayfair, and counted the future Sovereigns George VI and Elizabeth II amongst his patients

British War Medal 1914-20 (Surg. T. Mc C. Creighton. R.N.) good very fine £60-80

Thomas McCully Creighton was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, on 25 March 1889 and was educated at Dartmouth and Halifax schools before graduating from Dalhousie University as a Doctor of Medicine in 1912. In 1913 he moved to London, and was appointed a house surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, where he worked with such physicians as Lord Dawson of Penn. ‘While he was writing his exams for the Royal College of Surgeons, War broke out in Europe. He immediately left his studies to sign up with the British Royal Navy, becoming the first Canadian to enlist for War service in World War One’ (Farewell to Nova Scotia: the Life and Times of Dr. Thomas McCully Creighton, by Luke Harnish refers).
Creighton was appointed a Surgeon in the Royal Navy on 24 October 1914: ‘Certainly the first Canadian on active service with the British Forces, after serving as a Surgeon in H.M.S. Argonaut and the hospital ship China, he was transferred, in September 1915, to the Canadian Army Medical Corps. He fought in the Dardanelles but returned to London when he became ill. On recovery he was made deputy assistant director of medical services and helped to open the Canadian Officers’ Hospital in Hyde Park Place.’ (the recipient’s Obituary in the British Medical Journal, April 1985 refers).

Moving into private practice in Mayfair following the end of the Great War, he counted the the Duke and Duchess of York and their daughters (subsequently King George VI and our present Queen) amongst his patients. He finally retired in 1984, aged 95, having been in general practice in Mayfair for over 60 years, and died on 10 March 1985.