Dr. James Rankin home's Blue Plaque Award
Dr. Rankin
198 Church St.
The Stratford home of the Hon. Dr. James Palmer Rankin at 198 Church Street where the MP, senator, doctor and First World War veteran lived from 1920-1934 was honoured with a Stratford Blue Plaque Award from Heritage Stratford Tuesday afternoon. Pictured from left are homeowners Richard Nesbitt, Olivia Nesbitt and Lucy Lawlor, current Perth-Wellington MP John Nater, and two of Rankin's great grandchildren, Adrian Hey and Gordon McTaggart. (Galen Simmons/The Beacon Herald)
In a city like Stratford that’s been home to many well-known and colourful people, the personal stories of those who dedicated their lives to their community can sometimes fade from public knowledge.
On Tuesday, representatives from Heritage Stratford and Stratford council, as well as Perth-Wellington’s current MP, honoured a man – the Hon. Dr. James Palmer Rankin – who dedicated 53 years of his life to public and community service by adorning the home where he lived from 1920 to 1934 at 198 Church St. with a Stratford Blue Plaque Award.
“Heritage Stratford ran a program last year called Tell Us Your Story, and we wanted the community to give us stories about their relatives or people they knew in the community,” Heritage Stratford chair Cambria Ravenhill said at Tuesday’s \ ceremony. “We were looking for both the famous … or the not-so-famous that were deserving of a higher profile.
“The entry from (the owners of 198 Church St.) was a real standout for us because the man we’re going to talk about gave over 50 years of public service to the City of Stratford and really hasn’t had a very big profile. In fact, a lot of us hadn’t even really heard of him.”
Born near Tavistock in 1855, Rankin practised as a doctor and surgeon from his first Stratford home on Erie Street. He was elected MP for North Perth twice, serving in the House of Commons from 1908 to 1911 and from 1921 to 1925, and was appointed to the Senate from 1925 to 1934 before dying at his home on Church Street at age 79 while still in office.
Heritage Stratford chair Cambria Ravenhill and the Hon. Dr. James Palmer Rankin’s great-granddaughter, Adrian Hey, show those gathered at a Blue Plaque Award ceremony Tuesday the original, sheepskin certificate Rankin received when he was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1925. (Galen Simmons/The Beacon Herald)
During the First World War, Rankin, then in his 50s, also served domestically as a lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Army Medical Corps.
Ravenhill said Rankin began his public life as a school board chair and then became an alderman before winning his first election for MP in 1908. Rankin would go on to run and lose to Hugh Bolton Morphy in the following two elections before winning back his seat in 1921, shortly before moving into the house on Church Street.
“We talked about the elections he won, but I think most interestingly is actually the election he lost in 1917,” Perth-Wellington MP John Nater said at Tuesday’s ceremony. “It was during the height of the world war. As mentioned, he didn’t go overseas, but he was actively serving. He was actually one of the very few individuals who both served in the war effort and also ran for Parliament. … I think it’s a testament to his personality and him as a human being that he participated in both the war effort and an electoral effort.”
Heritage Stratford chair Cambria Ravenhill and the Hon. Dr. James Palmer Rankin’s great-granddaughter, Adrian Hey, where those gathered at a Blue Plaque Award ceremony Tuesday the original, sheepskin certificate Rankin received when he was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1925. (Galen Simmons/The Beacon Herald)
Two of Rankin’s great-grandchildren, Adrian Hey and Gordon McTaggart, were present for the ceremony. Hey showed those gathered the original sheepskin certificate Rankin received after being appointed to the Senate. She said she remembered visiting her great aunt, one of Rankin’s daughters, at the house on Church Street when she was a child both before and after Rankin’s former home was turned into a three-unit boarding house.
“That was the last time I was here. It was probably when I was 10 years old,” she said. “It’s kind of nice to be back here. I know my great-grandfather would be so pleased about having this recognition of him after all these years.” Lucy Lawlor, who purchased the home with husband Richard Nesbitt after the COVID-19 pandemic set in 2020, credited Peter Lunney, the man they purchased the home from, for restoring it back to its former glory as a single-family home.
“We’ve always been interested in heritage.… When we saw the article (about the Tell Us Your Story program) in the Beacon Herald, we contacted the archives. … My daughter Olivia (Nesbitt) had done her master’s in archival and library sciences in England, so she was quite fascinated by the history. So the first owner, in 1890, was a shoemaker … and then we got to 1920, and it says Dr. J.P Rankin. He was probably the longest owner, so then it switched to the Hon. James P. Rankin, so we started looking into him and the rest is history. This was beyond an exceptional person,” ,” Lawlor said.
Amazingly, Rankin’s story could have remained in obscurity had it not been for Lawlor and her family’s interest in their new home’s heritage and Heritage Stratford’s Blue Plaque program, which celebrates the links between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived or worked.
“It’s always amazing after living here 51 years that there are stories like Dr. Rankin’s that have not been told and these people have not been recognized for their outstanding achievements,” Stratford Mayor Dan Mathieson said. “To not only serve as a physician and surgeon in our community, but to be a member of our beloved Perth Regiment and serving in the First World War speaks to his dedication to public service.
“And to subject himself to two terms in the House of Commons, you really know he was committed to his country.”