Duncan McNab McEachran was born in Longrow, Campbeltown, in 1841. He was the son and grandson of Campbeltown blacksmiths and farriers. The name McEachran is derived from Gaelic Mac Eachthighearna, 'Son of the horse-lord',¹ and Duncan's line, the McEachrans of Killellan and Pennygown, were farriers, blacksmiths and farmers. His father was David McEachran, master blacksmith and a senior baillie of the town, who, according to the 1851 census, also farmed and employed four men. The business was located on the comer of Longrow and Corbett's Close (now Burnbank Street) and the family also lived there.

David McEachran's first wife, and Duncan's mother, was a Miss Jean Blackney. Little is known about Jean, who died in 1861. The name Blackney is not found in any other Kintyre records and is associated with the village of Blackney, near Wareham in Dorset. David married again to a Miss Marion McCallum, from Arran, with whom he had a son Charles. Both Duncan's brother William and half-brother Charles followed him to Canada and into the veterinary profession. Charles, in particular, married well. His wife, Margaret McPhee Allan, was daughter of Sir Hugh Allan, owner of a large Atlantic shipping line. Charles went on to become a very popular and successful Canadian businessman and a racehorse owner (naturally his horses were also successful - he was, after all, a McEachran!) Duncan McEachran was proud of his Kintyre lineage. He wrote several articles and papers on the fortunes of the Kintyre diaspora in Canada and called his home, in Quebec, Killellan.²

Duncan McNab McEachran was named after the Rev Duncan McNab, the minister of the Highland Parish Church who led his congregation out of the Church of Scotland in the schism of 1843.³ David McEachran was a strong supporter of McNab, who was a very charismatic man, and the dissenters established a new Gaelic Free Church at Big Kiln (later Lorne Street Church and now Campbeltown Heritage Centre). As well as the creation of two new churches on the site, one for Gaelic and one for English worship, the dissenters also established a new school. It was here that young Duncan McEachran was schooled in English, Latin, Greek, French, Navigation, Mathematics, Book-keeping and Geography.

In 1858, at the age of 17, Duncan McEachran entered the Edinburgh Veterinary College. This was a privately owned college and at that time the only one in Scotland. It is now known as the Royal (Dick) Veterinary School after William Dick, its original owner and one of McEachran's teachers. At that time, Diplomas from Dick's college were awarded by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society, but before a student could practise professionally he was required to sit the examinations of the London-based Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, a body licensed to the Privy Council and responsible for the 'uniportal' system entitling the use of the professional qualification MRCVS.

The period when McEachran was in Edinburgh was one of some turmoil in the veterinary profession and especially in Edinburgh. William Dick had originally trained as a farrier. In London he had attended extramural anatomy lectures, but that was all he had done before coming back to Edinburgh to set up his college. He was recognised as a good surgeon and a great proponent of bleeding and firing lame horses, but was no scientist. He did not believe in the germ theory of disease which was becoming accepted following the work of Pasteur and Lister and in this he was in conflict with his staff. His colleagues Gamgee and McCall strongly supported the germ theory and both left in disagreement over his views on treatment of the cattle plague outbreak in Scotland, and established their own colleges, in Liverpool and Glasgow.⁴

McEachran was of a very logical, scientific bent and was persuaded by the germ theory of Pasteur and Lister and the idea that human and veterinary disease conditions represented a continuum of 'one medicine'. This, combined with an inherent stubbornness and inflexibility, made him less than popular with Dick. In 1861 Dick was asked to nominate a suitable young graduate to take up the post of first Director of a Veterinary college in Ontario. He had two candidates: Andrew Smith, a dull, hard-working plodder from Ayrshire, able, reasonable and capable of compromise, and Duncan McEachran, brilliant, idealistic, stubborn, with strong opinions, and a 'germ theory man' with a 'guid conceit of himsel'. 'Although McEachran was probably the more able, Dick chose Andrew Smith instead.

No doubt angered at being passed over in this way, McEachran travelled to Canada under his own steam and established a practice in Woodstock, Ontario, not far from where Smith's college was situated. Once there, McEachran did some teaching in materia medica for Smith and in 1867 they even published the first Canadian veterinary textbook The Canadian horse and his diseases, which went to two editions. However, they had very different philosophies on veterinary education ~d science. McEachran believed in high entrance requirements and science-based teaching. Smith, as the proprietor of the commercially-based college, pragmatically accepted students from anywhere if they could pay the fees and he firmly believed they should be taught, like apprentices, by practical training. ⁵

McEachran stayed only a few years in Woodstock, but during that time he met and subsequently married Esther Plaskett, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, who also had investments in sugar plantations in the Virgin Islands.

In 1865 he moved to Montreal where his friend John Shedden had a major cartage business and many horses requiring veterinary attention. He specialized in horse practice, as was the tradition of the day, especially for the son and grandson of farriers. Possibly even more significantly, he was one of the McEachrans, who were always known as 'the horse people'. He gained an excellent name for his equine skills, but, in keeping with his belief in 'one medicine', McEachran was also interested in diseases of cattle and pigs, and wrote a number of articles and reports on the. major infectious diseases affecting Canadian livestock. The McEachran practice in Montreal prospered and indeed it still operates, the oldest veterinary practice in Canada.⁶

John Shedden was well connected politically and introduced the upwardly mobile and ambitious Duncan to other major Scottish businessmen in Montreal, such as leading banker Donald McGill, Donald Smith (later Lord Strathcona) of the Hudson's Bay Company and Hugh Allan of the Allan shipping line. These relationships served McEachran well and he was proud of his Scottish and particularly his Kintyre connections.

Although travelling widely, McEachran based himself in Montreal for the rest of his life. He was active in the highest social circles and particularly active in horse matters, judging as widely as the New York and Chicago World Fairs. He and Esther had two daughters, but one died aged five. The other married, but her only child, a son, was born blind.

In 1866, McEachran decided to set up his own veterinary college based on the principles of scientific training and high entrance requirements. This was at a time when Canadian agriculture was already beginning its excellent reputation for stockbreeding, particularly in the dairy industry, and McEachran was one of its leaders. His Veterinary School was closely aligned to the world famous McGill University from the start, and was the first in the world to demand educational qualifications, and not just ability to pay the fees, from his students. So high were his entrance and qualification standards that in the first nine years only ten students graduated. Such was their ability, however, that the school became recognised as the best in North America, if not the world, at that time.

In conjunction with the world-famous medical epidemiologist, Sir William Osler, he also established the requirement for his students to take courses in the medical school as well as in veterinary classes and he is generally considered one of the founders, with Osler, of the scientific discipline of Comparative Pathology. His educational philosophy, which was based on the similarity between human and animal medicine, required his students to take courses on basic science as well as training in pathology and clinical experience. In this they anticipated the teaching model that most Western schools of veterinary medicine would adopt subsequently. It is still the basis of 21st century veterinary teaching courses throughout the world, but few are aware that one of the pioneers of modem veterinary education was a blacksmith's son from Longrow, Campbeltown.

In 1874, through the influence of Sir William Osler, McEachran's college was absorbed into McGill University and McEachran appointed Dean of Veterinary Medicine, a position he retained until his retirement in 1903. In 1905 he was awarded the honorary degree of D.Sc. by that University in recognition of his contributions to scientific education. Eventually, the costs of maintaining a veterinary school within the medical faculty and competition from the French-speaking college forced McGill to close the school, but it had by then made a firm contribution to both raising standards and emphasising the close relationship between animal and human diseases.⁷

McEachran's contribution was not restricted to science alone, however; among his other achievements were the introduction of a quarantine system for Canada, which is still the basis for one of the highest standards of animal agriculture in the world, and the establishment of a control system for the horse influenza epidemic in New York, which in the 1870s was paralysing the city's transport system. Because of his advocacy and development of animal health policy and regulations, leading to the first national health regulations, in 1885 McEachran was recognised by the country's political leaders and became the first chief veterinary adviser to the Government of Canada. So successful were his import controls, that they became a model for other countries, and for his contribution to national policy development McEachran was awarded the honorary degree of LL.D in 1909.

Duncan McEachran's life was not confined to academia and veterinary practice, however. He undertook Government missions in support of the Canadian agriculture industry, especially in relation to the need for enforcement of international quarantine laws, and also acted for wealthy Canadian investors in importing high quality pedigree cattle and horses from Scotland.

In this task he visited Scotland regularly and often used the opportunity to visit Campbeltown to purchase good Clydesdale horses from the best Kintyre breeders. In 1910 alone, he transported 10 Clydesdales from Kintyre breeders, including two from A. Ronald, Pennyseorach, and one each from Langa, Dalrioch and Uigle.⁸ It was on one of these visits that he decided that the inscription on the Campbeltown Cross, which had been erected, he believed, by one of his antecedents, should be reproduced with a translation from the Latin on a bronze plaque. These plaques are still to be seen on the plinth of the Cross, located at the head of the Old Quay at Campbeltown harbour. He also involved himself in using his political influence to secure leases and advise investors who were starting to ranch in the Western Provinces of Canada. In particular, he became a Director of the Cochrane Ranch Investment. Coincidentally, the name Cochrane in Kintyre can be an anglicisation of McEachran, but it is unlikely that he had any relationship to the principal shareholder.

During this time he also became involved in native Indian politics. Sitting Bull of Custer fame had fled to Canada, and McEachran tried unsuccessfully, on his behalf, to negotiate conditions of safe return to the U.S.A. He also carried out deals for the Indian tribes of the west, as he had great influence with Government, and for these he was made a chieftain of the Blackfeet tribe, known as Chief Akotas.⁹

McEachran's dour Scottish manner, however, led to difficulties for him with his fellow directors in the Cochrane ranch, and this, coupled with serious losses due to abnormal winter conditions, led to his exit from the company. Not daunted, he immediately involved himself with another ranching company, the Walrond Ranch, some 260,000 acres, funded by wealthy English investors.

Possibly one of McEachran's most important and most financially successful involvements, however, was in the Anaconda mining saga. Anaconda was a large US mining company which, among other things, mined and smelted copper in a very large open-cast location in Butte, Montana. Toxic fumes from the operation, however, led to significant cattle losses in farms to windward of the factory. The company compensated the farmers and remedied the problem by constructing very large chimneys and modifying their discharge patterns. Unfortunately for them, however, as is often the case when farmers are compensated and lawyers get involved, other farmers from a very wide area started to make massive claims of doubtful validity. The share price of Anaconda was severely affected and the Board decided to defend their actions. They made enquiries and announced that ' ... a clever Scotchman called McEachran has been hired to save the business'. McEachran organised a defence replete with distinguished expert witnesses who demolished the farmers' case. It was the first time that such a defended case using extensive expertise had been led and McEachran received great plaudits. The share price of Anaconda recovered and naturally McEachran received a very significant and well-deserved fee.

One of his last successes, and one which was no doubt very close to his heart, was in winning the argument with the French farming lobby in Quebec, who had received a Government subsidy for the importation of French Percheron horses in preference to Clydesdales. McEachran was asked by the Clydesdale supporters to intervene with the Government. Through his political connections and his depth of experience of horses and the qualities of both breeds, he managed to persuade the Government to lift the subsidy and as a result the breeds competed on an equal footing.

Duncan McNab McEachran died on 13 October 1924 in Quebec. One obituary refers to him as o An irascible old Scot known throughout his life for his inflexible attitudes, abrasive nature and impatience with the inferiority of lesser mortals, but also a genius whose immense contribution to agriculture, to veterinary medicine and to the development of Canada has never been properly recognised' .¹⁰

Duncan McEachran remained a man of Kintyre to his death. In his will he left a large sum, from the interest of which his wife, daughter and grandson were to receive an annuity equating to the present-day equivalent of almost $200,000 a year.

However, possibly because of his dislike of his son-in-law, he was adamant that nothing was to be left to direct descendants (if any) thereafter and all remains of the estate were to go back to CampbeItown for his FULL brothers and sisters and their descendants. His grandson, the blind Harrison McEachran Young, died in 1977 in Vancouver Island. Unfortunately, although Canadian lawyers contacted the Campbeltown McEachrans at that time, the money apparently was no more.

Much of the information in this paper is derived from discussions with Sadie Galbraith Muir, an eminent Kintyre genealogist, and Angus Martin in CampbeItown. P. David Green, a retired Government veterinarian in Victoria, Canada, whose definitive biography entitled Visionary Veterinarian: Dr Duncan McNab McEachran, is currently in press, has also been most helpful. His outstanding text will add greatly not only to the story of McEachran and his brothers but to the history of animal welfare, biosecurity and veterinary medicine in Canada and beyond.¹⁰

• 1. Black G. F. (1999 edition) The Surnames o/Scotland: Their Origin. Meaning, and History, New York, p 489.
• 2. P. David Green, pers. comm.
• 3. Rejecting Scotland's Establishment, in www.Knapdalespeople.com
• 4. Yam P., Editor (2012), Glasgow Veterinary School 1862-2012. University of Glasgow Press, p 10.
• 5 Goulet G. & Jean F., 'Duncan McNab McEachran (1841-1924)', Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, www.bio~raphi.ca
• 6. Mitchell C. A. (1966), 'Canada's oldest veterinary practice'. Canadian Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Science. 30:287-289.
• 7. Derbyshire J. B. (2012), 'Contributions by British graduates to early development of veterinary medicine in Canada'. Veterinary History. 12: 290-291.
• 8. Martin A. (1984), Kintyre Country Life, Edinburgh, p 63.
• 9. Martin A. (2011), Kintyre Families, Campbeltown, p 35.
• 10. Pers. comm., Mrs Judith McAlister, Campbeltown.