Surgeon General

The Surgeon General (French: médecin-général) is the professional head of the Canadian military health jurisdiction, the adviser to the Minister of National Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff on all matters related to health, and head of the Royal Canadian Medical Service. The Surgeon General may also be appointed the commander of the Canadian Forces Health Services Group, which fulfils all military health system functions from education and clinical services to research and public health. It consists of the Royal Canadian Medical Service, the Royal Canadian Dental Corps, personnel from other branches of the armed forces, and civilians, with health professionals from over 45 occupations and specialties in over 125 units and detachments across Canada and abroad. When appointed Director General Health Services, the Surgeon General is also the senior health services staff officer in the Department of National Defence. The Surgeon General is normally appointed to the Medical Household as Honorary Physician (QHP) or Honorary Surgeon (QHS) to His Majesty the King. History The first head of the Canadian military medical service was Colonel Darby Bergin, a prominent physician and surgeon who was also Member of Parliament for Cornwall, president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, founder of the 1st Volunteer Militia Rifle Company of Cornwall, and first commanding officer of the 59th Stormont and Glengarry Battalion of Infantry (now the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders). Selected by the Minister of Militia and Defence, the Honourable Sir Adolphe Caron, to organize the North-West Field Force medical services during the North-West Rebellion of 1885, Colonel Bergin's own proposed appointment as Director General Medical Services, was overruled by the Minister in favour of Surgeon General. Major-General the Honourable Sir Eugène Fiset KT, CMG, DSO, ED, GGHS, BA, MB, MD, MS was the first Surgeon General after the establishment of the Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1904 (renamed the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1919), the creation of which was the second step in bringing all military health personnel under unified administration. Appointed Director General Medical Services as a colonel in 1903, he was subsequently appointed Deputy Minister of Militia and Defence in 1906 and promoted to Surgeon General in 1914.