Duncan Archibald Graham was born at Ivan, Ontario, the eldest son of Donald Lamont Graham and Susan McDonald, his wife, the ancestors of both families having emigrated from the Scottish Highlands in 1829 and settled in Middlesex County in Western Ontario. He was educated in Canada and qualified in medicine from the University of Toronto in 1905, taking his MD in 1955. He graduated LLD Toronto in 1947, and LLD Queen’s in 1949. In 1929 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and a Fellow of this College in 1934. In 1955 he was elected a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Graham began his career as assistant bacteriologist and demonstrator in physiology at the University of Toronto and in 1906 was appointed resident pathologist at Toronto General Hospital. In 1911, after postgraduate study in London, Heidelberg, Dresden and Vienna, he returned to his University as Lecturer in Bacteriology. At the outbreak of the first world war he joined the 4th Canadian General Hospital Unit and served in England, France and Salonika. After demobilization he returned to Canada and his old university, being appointed Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Medicine. He was also appointed physician in chief to Toronto General Hospital. In 1932 he was consulting physician to the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, and from 1938-1946 was a member of the Committee on Medical Research of the National Research Council, Ottawa.

During the second world war he was Consultant in Medicine to the Director General of Medical Services, Ottawa; Vice-Chairman of the Associate Committee on Aviation Medical Research, NRC Ottawa, and a member of Council. From 1946-1952, he was Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of Atomic Energy Project, NRC, Ottawa and was appointed Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of Toronto in 1947. From 1947 to 1962 he was also Adviser in Medical Education and Research to the Director of Treatment Services, Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Ottawa. He was granted the CBE in 1944, and Companion of the Order of Canada in 1968.

He was a member of most of the Canadian medical societies and of the Association of American Physicians.

In 1929 he married Enid Gordon Robertson, daughter of Mr and Mrs William Copeland Finley of Montreal. They had a daughter. Of his two stepchildren, one became a medical practitioner, Dr Alan Bruce-Robertson. His interests, apart from his work and family, were in golf and climbing.

Sir Gordon Wolstenholme
V Luniewska