King, J. L.

John Leslie King was born July 4th, 1892, in Hornby, Ontario, to his father John Thomas King, and mother Mary Graham. He was the eldest of six children. During high school, King lived with his paternal aunt and her husband John Thomas King in Brampton. In 1910 King enrolled at the University of Toronto (UofT) to acquire his Bachelor of Arts to become a teacher. However, in his second year of the program, King developed a ruptured appendix. During his hospital stay, King was inspired by the work of the medical staff and decided to switch to medicine. King withdrew from the Arts program in late 1912 and took his first year of medicine at the University of Toronto the following year. The First World War broke out in 1914, causing many in UofT’s faculty of medicine to go overseas and, consequently, King’s medical program was accelerated. He and his classmates, one of whom was Frederick Banting, graduated in 1916 instead of the intended 1917.

Following graduation, King did an internship in surgery at the Guelph General Hospital and then took over a general practice in the village of Alton, Ontario, where he practiced for a year. King joined the army in 1918 and travelled to Siberia with the 16th Field Ambulance. Once the war was over, King worked 6 months at the Mayo Clinic before returning to his hometown of Hornby. He then worked for Dr. Marshall E. Gowland in Milton for seven years beginning in 1919 and ended up marrying his boss’ sister-in law, Amanda Partridge, with whom he had one daughter. In 1926, King opened his own general practice in Galt, purchasing it from a Dr. Charlton. In Galt, he was on the staff at both St. Mary’s and Grand River Hospitals. Dr. King died in 1984 at the age of 92 and is buried in Milton, Ontario.