Lives lived: John Duncan Bury, 92

M.D. Activist. Artist. Great-grandfather. Born March 16, 1924, in Wanstead, England; died Dec. 22, 2016, in Saskatoon of pneumonia; aged 92.

John was one of the British doctors who came to Saskatchewan in 1963 to help build Medicare at a time when its birth had been challenged by a doctors’ strike and by strong opposition to “socialized medicine.”

He arrived in Saskatoon with his wife, Sylvia, and sons, Duncan and Nicholas, in June to take up a position as a family physician, obstetrician and gynacologist at the Saskatoon Community Clinic.

He will be remembered as a caring physician and a progressive who worked for social justice, equality and nuclear disarmament.

He played a big part in making Medicare the iconic program that it has become. Canadians take Medicare for granted and many people do not know the story of the struggles of the Saskatchewan CCF/NDP to legislate universal health insurance, or of the community clinic doctors who had to go to court to get privileges to work at Saskatoon’s City Hospital.

John was an immigrant and proud of it. He became thoroughly Canadianized, loving the clear Prairie skies and landscapes, the friendly, open people and even showed a passing interest in the fortunes of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Canada became his new home in every way but he could never deny his love of British TV , the Guardian Weekly, roast lamb and, of course, Marmite. He embraced Saskatoon and Saskatchewan.

John studied medicine during the latter years of the Second World War and practised in the grimness of England, post-1945. From the London Hospital where he trained it was impossible not to see the poverty of east end London and the family trauma that a medical crisis created. He became one of the first doctors enrolled in the National Health Service in 1948 and his passion and support for universal health-care blossomed. He keenly embraced the opportunities presented by the Saskatoon Community Clinic to build Medicare in Canada and to work directly with patients in a community.

He worked as a doctor for 40 years and joked that he decided to retire when he observed that he was beginning to deliver the babies of his first patients’ grandchildren.

In retirement, he pursued his artistic talents using pen and ink and watercolours to chase the perfect representation of Prairie clouds. At Christmas and birthdays, family members received the most lovely gift cards – small paintings and photos of his work. He was an avid reader of history and could talk authoritatively about the expeditions of David Thompson and the Battle of Batoche. Along with Betsy, his second wife, he was well known in Saskatoon for supporting a variety of social, political, peace and environmental initiatives. Friends admired his clear, well-argued letters to the editor and his dapper dress.

While he was not uncritical of the current state of Medicare – he argued that doctors had unthinkingly contributed to its growing costs – he leaves as his legacy a proud and loving family, and a universal health-care program for which all Canadians are thankful.

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Lives Lived celebrates the everyday, extraordinary, unheralded lives of Canadians who have recently passed. To learn how to share the story of a family member or friend, go online to tgam.ca/livesguide

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