• HOME
• THE LANGUAGE OF MADNESS
• THE ASYLUM
• • Asylum Design
  • Patient Buildings
• SOCIETY
• • Urban & Rural Life
  • Class & Gender
  • The Hysterical Female
  • The Evils of "Self-Abuse"
  • Family
  • Visitors
• LEGISLATION
• • Legislative Influence
  • Origins of Legislation and the Criminality of Insanity
  • Teenaged Years: Marked Custody Transition
  • Turn of the Century: Voluntary Admissions
  • Updated Act: The Mental Hospital Act
• SUPERINTENDANTS
• STAFF
• • Working at the LAI
  • Hiring Practices
  • Rules for Employees
  • Employee Roles in Moral Therapy
  • Doctors at LAI
  • Doctor Connections to UWO
  • Training School for Nurses
  • Attendants
  • General Staff
• PATIENT PERSPECTIVES
• • Introduction
  • Patient Art
  • Patient Letters
  • Their Voice
• MEDICAL TREATMENTS
• • Medical Treatment Introduction
  • Use of Restraints
  • Drug and Alcohol
  • Hydrotherapy
  • Female Surgeries
  • Neurosyphilis
  • Shock Therapy
  • Lobotomies
• MORAL THERAPY
• • Moral Therapy Introduction
  • Labour
  • Amusements
  • Diet
  • Religion
• THE WORLD WARS
• • Before the First World War
  • During the First World War
  • After the First World War
  • The First World War and the LAI
  • First World War Veterans at the LAI
  • The Second World War
• MEMORIES OF RMHCL
• • Introduction
  • Their Memories

Dr. Douglas MacNeil Wickware 1959-1970

Dr. Wickware's medical training began at Queen's University with M.D., where he obtained his C.M. and LMCC in 1946. He continued with a Doctorate in Psychiatry and a Certificate in Psychiatry from the University of Toronto in 1949. He began working at the Ontario Mental Health Services in 1947. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada certified him in psychiatry in 1972.

While he was superintendent, Dr. Wickware taught psychiatry and was Deputy Director of Psychiatric Services at the University Hospital in London. He coordinated the Forensic Psychiatric Services for southwestern Ontario, and was past president of the Ontario Psychiatric Association, Canadian Mental Health Association for London and Middlesex, London and District Academy of Medicine, and University Hospital Medical Staff and the University Hospital Board of Directors.

Dr. Wickware was an Ontario Medical Associate Life member. He was the last superintendent with the dual responsibility of administrator and chief medical officer. In 1971, Mr. R. C. Hansen became the Hospital Administrator, while Dr. Wickware held the responsibilities for the medical and professional life in the hospital until 1973. He retired from the Department of Psychiatry in 1984, after eleven years of service, when he was honoured with the distinction of Professor Emeritus. Dr. Wickware died in 2007.

Dr. Wickware was the last superintendent at the Ontario Hospital at London. He believed staff were the most important component of the hospital program. He supported a regional authority plan for a full range of services that would provide progressive care for patients.

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