Warwick, Orlando Harold

Dr. O. Harold Warwick was born in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1915 and died in London, Ontario in 2009. The “O” in his name stood for Orlando, though he was referred to as “Harold”. In 1942 he married Barbara Gzowski with whom he had four children—two sons and two daughters.

He graduated with a B.A. from Mount Alison University in 1936, followed by a B.A. in Physiology from Oxford University in England in 1938 and his M.D. from McGill University in Montreal in 1940. Between 1941 and 1945 he was a Squadron Leader with the RCAF overseas. When he returned to civilian life in 1945 he began his post-graduate medical training in Internal Medicine at McGill University in Montreal and then in London, England as a Nuffield Scholar.

By 1947, Dr. Warwick was back in Montreal as teaching staff at McGill University and a physician in the Department of Medicine at Royal Victoria Hospital. From 1948 to 1961 he was teaching staff in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. During this time he was the first joint Executive Director of the National Cancer Institute of Canada and the Canadian Cancer Society (1948-1955). He was also a physician at Toronto General Hospital (1948-1958). By 1955 his work at Toronto General Hospital was as a full-time physician at the Ontario Institute of Radiotherapy. When Princess Margaret Hospital opened in 1958 he became its Chief Physician (1958-1961). In 1961 he moved back to London, Ontario as Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario (1961-1965) before becoming Vice-President of the Health Sciences (1965-1971). From 1972-1980 he was a physician at Victoria Hospital and London Regional Cancer Clinic. He retired in 1980.

Dr. Warwick was a pioneering researcher in cancer control and treatment:
<blockquote>During his years at the Toronto General, the Radiotherapy Institute and the Princess Margaret Hospital, Warwick treated and studied hundreds of patients with cancer, spoke and wrote about treatment with hormones and chemotherapy agents, and published a number of papers on clinical drug trials. The most important of these established the value of the vinca alkaloid, vinblastine sulphate, particularly in patients with Hodgkin's disease. As a complete practitioner of cancer medicine Warwick had been a "medical oncologist", undoubtedly the first in Canada, for many years before the specialty was accepted and named.¹</blockquote>

Dr. Warwick became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1990.

1. Dr. Don Cowan. Quoted in Obituary of O. Harold Warwick. http://www.inmemoriam.ca/view-announcement-195264-o.-harold-warwick.html. Accessed: July 18, 2011.