Frederick Banting - Early Years

Early Years

Frederick Banting was born on 14 November 1891, in a farm house near Alliston, Ontario. The youngest of six children of William Thompson Banting and Margaret Grant, he attended public and high schools in Alliston. He attempted to enter the army but was refused due to poor eyesight. He then attended the University of Toronto in the faculty of divinity but soon transferred to medicine. He received his M.B degree in 1916 and enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, which had a need for medics in World War I. He was wounded at the battle of Cambrai in 1918. Despite his injuries, he helped other wounded men for sixteen hours, until another doctor told him to stop. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1919, for heroism.

Banting returned to Canada after the war and briefly took up general practice in London, Ontario. Returning to Toronto, he studied orthopaedic medicine and, in 1919-1920, was Resident Surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children. From 1920-21, he continued his general practice, while teaching orthopedics and anthropology part-time at the University of Western Ontario in London. From 1921-22 he lectured in pharmacology at the University of Toronto, receiving his M.D. degree in 1922, along with a gold medal.