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Dr. William J.P. Macmillan
Premier from 1933 to 1935
DR. WILLIAM J.P. MACMILLAN, born March 24, 1881, at Cleremont, Prince Edward Island, served as
Premier for only two years, but was leader of the Opposition and head of the Island Conservative
Party for more than 15 years.
His youth was marked by an outstanding scholastic record at Prince of Wales College and McGill
University where he graduated in 1908 with a degree of Doctor of Medicine. He was the
recipient of the Holmes Gold Metal from McGill. He returned to the Island and established a
medical practice first in Kinkora and afterwards in Charlottetown in 1910. In 1935, Dr.
MacMillan was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from McGill, one of the few
Islanders to be granted this honour.
In 1923, he entered politics, not with a political motive but to try and obtain a grant for his
favourite charity, The Red Cross Society. However, he remained in the Legislature after he
achieved his first objective and served continuously until 1955 except for the "clean sweep" made
by the Liberals during the years 1935 to 1939. In 1932, he was named the first Minister of Health
and Education in the province and took over the role of acting Premier during the illness of
Premier James D. Stewart. On Stewart's death in 1933, he was named Premier and served until
1935.
Dr. MacMillan entered the provincial administration at a time when finances were strained as a
result of two fires which destroyed Prince of Wales College and Falconwood, the then Provincial
Mental Hospital. He had them both rebuilt and at the same time, elevated Prince of Wales
College to Junior College status. Perhaps his greatest success was his procurement of a Carnegie
Foundation endowment for the establishing of a Provincial Library System which still serves the
Island.
A member of many service clubs, charitable organizations and a number of medical associations,
Dr. MacMillan was awarded an O.B.E. for his work during the second World War. He was
named a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1947 and installed by
Bishop James Boyle in Charlottetown in February 1948.
He had been named Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward Island on November 22, 1957, only
days before his death on December 7, 1957.
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