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HADLEY WILLIAMS, who would one day become a prominent figure in the medical community of London, Ont., was born in Porrington, Devon, on Feb. 14, 1868.
The young Hadley attended West Buckland school and in his teens his family emigrated to Canada to settle in Clandeboye in southwestern Ontario.
At the time Williams attended the University of Western Ontario's medical school in the early 1880s, the annual tuition fee was $75. The school was privately owned by the teaching staff.
The teaching professors bought stock or shares. Most of the stock was held by newly appointed professors who could, when they resigned, sell their shares. Similarly, when they died, their heirs could sell the shares to other teaching staff. In 1909, one share was worth $100.
Before Dr. Williams graduated, he became a lecturer/demonstrator in the department of anatomy. The medical students had four lectures per week and spent several hours each day in the dissecting room working on unclaimed bodies made available for teaching purposes.
In 1889, Dr. Williams was one of 62 medical students to graduate from Western. He went to London, England, to obtain his certification from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, the first Ontario Londoner to do so.
Returning home, Dr. Williams rejoined the department of anatomy, with Dr. Edwin Seaborn as assistant demonstrator. In 1903, Dr. Williams was appointed associate professor.
Also in 1903, Dr. Williams married heiress Elsie Perrin, the only child of Daniel S. Perrin of the Perrin Biscuit Co. (now the McCormack Biscuit Factory on London's outskirts). His father-in-law presented them with Windermere, a 68-acre estate north of London.
The biggest changes at Western's medical school occurred...