William Grigor

Dr. William Grigor (179824 November 1857) was a Scottish-born medical doctor, legislative councillor, and politician.

Early life and education William Grigor was born in 1798 in Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1819.

He worked without pay as assistant to Charles Wentworth Wallace, the port of Halifax's health officer, from 1827 to 1832. The doctors Grigor and Sterling started the Halifax Visiting Dispensary in a small house on Granville Street.

Dr. William Grigor joined multiple organizations aimed at social progress and served as an early advocate and inaugural president of the Halifax Mechanics' Institute upon its creation in 1831. As the first president, he worked alongside vice presidents John Leander Starr and Joseph Howe. He held the position until 23 December 1833. Nova Scotia painter William Valentine presented Dr. Grigor's portrait to the Halifax Mechanics' Institute in 1832. During the 1830s, Dr. Grigor delivered multiple lectures on art at the institute, most notably his 1836 lecture, A Philosophical View of Painting. He delivered a course of lectures on phrenology in November 1840.

The Halifax doctor was a personal physician to politician Joseph Howe. He was also a part of Howe's literary circle, the Club.

In September 1848, he was one of seven board members who were appointed to the Board of Dalhousie College (now Dalhousie University).

Alongside his large private practice and dispensary work, Dr. Grigor worked as Halifax County coroner from 1848 to 1857.

On 21 February 1849, Sir John Harvey had appointed Grigor to a seat in the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia.

Dr. Grigor was elected president of the Halifax Medical Society (later Nova Scotia Medical Society) on 5 October 1854. Catherine was the daughter of Halifax merchant James Pringle Forman. They had a son named John Henry Grigor.

Death William Grigor died on 24 November 1857 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.