Dr William Mark TOONE MD [27145]

  General Notes:

Captain William Mark Toone MD was appointed to Commissioned Rank the Canadian Army (Active) Medical Corps on the twenty-fourth day of November 1941 served in Canada, United Kingdom and Continental Europe and was struck off the strength on the sixteenth day of January 1946 by reason of return to Reserve Status.

His daughter Jane writes
"Amazing gardener, enjoyed fishing, reading and a Rye and Ginger in the evenings Hated flying, always drove a Buick, and had amazing hands........in the days when diagnosis was done without imaging and cameras and one relied on what you could feel and see.
In Nelson it was not uncommon to be paid his fees in produce........and he once left two rabbits completely dressed in the kitchen sink for Anne to deal with........!

Images Courtesy of Jane Layard Herasimenko Genealogist - 2018

  Other Records

1. William Mark Toone: Toone family by Jane Layard Herasimenko nee Toone, 2018.
WILLIAM MARK TOONE
William Mark Toone was born in Wimbledon, England, May 25, 1908; the eldest son of William Charles Toone 1883-1918 a Master Boot Maker and Amy Elizabeth nee Ewing 1887-1921. William and Amy had four children together; William Mark my father, Francis Charles, Ethel May who died young and Alfred. Sadly, William Charles was killed in Belguim, Greece while serving in the British Army as a gunner WW1 leaving Amy to provide for her children. They were living in Wimbledon at this time with Amy's family.
Amy was one of 13 children Her father, a stone mason, was often out of work.
When there was not enough money coming into the house, the younger children were left with the church orphanage until better times. At one point, Amy's parents went to fetch the youngest four, only to find that they had disappeared! Caught up in Dr. Bernardo's solution to the overpopulated orphanages and foundlings homes in England, they had been shipped off to Canada. It was many years before the family were reunited.

My father never talked about his childhood much less his life in general, he was a very quiet man.
I was able piece his life together from family and Canadian Army records.
After her husband William's death in Greece 1918, Amy married again to Joseph Keech Goodwin, a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. He had contracted pneumonia in France, and was evacuated back to England, they married March 26, 1919. When he demobbed and they settled in Edmonton Canada where Amy joined the local Anglican Church. It was this church family that was to play a big influence in my father's life.

Sadly, Amy died only two years later, in October 1921, leaving her boys with their Step-father and no extended family. Joseph kept them at home until they were 14 and then sent them out to fend for themselves.
Sadly Joseph remarried to a woman of a previous relationship with him who was not kind to her Toone stepsons.

(William) Mark Toone found support with with members of his mothers church, particularly the Hillmale family, he got a job cleaning at an Optical Lab run by Robert Campbell, also a church member who became his mentor. Mark was encouraged to finish his education at night school which he did. Robert Campbell also employed Mark's younger brother Francis (Frank) and trained him as an Optician.

The Church provided a bursary for Mark to go to University. The understanding being that he becomes a minister. While taking his BSc at the University of Saskatchewan, Mark came home every summer and worked for the church. After he finished his BSc, he went on to the School of Theology, Queens College Toronto, but after a year or maybe two he decided that he wanted to go into Medicine instead. He made an agreement with the church that if they continued to aid him financially he would pay them back, which he did, every last penny.

Mark took a trip to india in the late 1930's where he met a Richard Dowbiggin, who had a sister Anne in Hong Kong who made an impression. WWII was threatening so Mark returned to Canada and joined the Canadian Medical Corps. By a coincidence Mark travelled at the time (c1938) via Hong Kong. At the harbour mouth his ship hit mines and sank leaving him with nothing. Remembering the Dowbiggn family in Hong Kong, he was taken in and stayed for the 6 weeks he was waiting to tranship.

The Dowbiggin family had a very different life to that he had been used to, being part of Hong Kong society. Again by coincidence their daughter Anne was home after university study and the young couple struck up a relationship. Mark's proposal to marry was accepted but her father Hugh said she must wait until she was 21 some 2 years away.

Mark took doctors work in public health and at mines, his enlistment not yet acted upon, two years pass and he and Anne are married in 1940. Their first child Ethel May was born in 1941 sadly with a congenital heart defect. Then at this difficult time for the family Mark is called up for service and leaves for England for 5 years.

Finally after long anxious years the war is over and Mark returns in 1945 and went into private practice. He threw himself into establishing his practice and being a good father to his daughters, but he was not supportive of his wife and was often critical of her. After 18yrs of the marriage Mark left.
By then Mark had given up private practice and joined the Veterans Hospital in Victoria BC specializing in geriatrics. Mark married again and had another family.
Edited by the Webmaster - 2021

William married Anne Rosamond Layard DOWBIGGIN [27144] [MRIN: 9737], daughter of Col Hugh Blackwell Layard DOWBIGGIN OBE [27049] and Hilda Gertrude Mallard CLARK [27143], on 5 Oct 1940 in Caulfield BC. The marriage ended in divorce. (Anne Rosamond Layard DOWBIGGIN [27144] was born on 1 Sep 1919 in Victoria Hong Kong and died on 22 Apr 1974 in Los Angeles CA USA.)

William next married Barbara Mary COURTNEY [27217] [MRIN: 9777] in Jun 1959 in Victoria BC CAN. (Barbara Mary COURTNEY [27217] was born on 18 Sep 1912 in Halifax Nova Scotia and died on 28 Feb 2013 in Victoria BC.)