Frank Campbell MacIntosh, 24 December 1909 - 11 September 1992

• Published in: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1994
• Subjects: Breton Island; Canada; Canso; Harbour Island; Matheson; Prince Edward Island
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1994.0038; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1994.0038

The MacIntoshes were displaced from the Western Isles of Scotland by the Highland clearances at the end of the eighteenth century and like many of their compatriots moved to Nova Scotia. Around 1816 the Macintoshes were settled on a farm at Big Harbour Island on the Bras d’Or Lake of Cape Breton Island, that large detached part of Nova Scotia separated from the mainland by the narrow Straits of Canso - so narrow that they were frequently crossed by swimming deer. This part of Nova Scotia had a considerable resemblance to the old home in its landscape and its sea-tom ruggedness, which must have assuaged some of the pain of exile. Frank (who was always known as Hank) was born at Baddeck in Cape Breton on 24 December 1909, the son of the Reverend C.C. Macintosh, a well-known pastor of the United Church of Canada, who spoke and preached in Gaelic in the Canadian Maritimes and in New England. His mother Beenie Matheson, also of Scottish origin, came from Prince Edward Island. She had trained as a teacher and had moved to the north-west territories as a pioneer. As a child Hank frequently went visiting with his father in the horse and buggy. He was a precocious child and taught himself to read at the age of three - largely from the Encyclopedia Britannica - becoming especially interested in the geographical places described therein. At nine he was driving the family Model T. He was very proud of the fact that when he was just one year old, Alexander Graham Bell dandled him on his knee at his home in Beinn Bhreagh.