Pierre-Jean de Sales Laterrière

Who is Pierre-Jean de Sales Laterrière?

Pierre-Jean de Sales Laterrière was a doctor, militia officer and author; the elder son of Pierre de Sales Laterrière and Marie-Catherine Delezenne.

In 1807 or 1808 he went to England to study medicine at St Thomas' Hospital in London under Sir Astley Paston Cooper, a famous surgeon. Admitted to membership in the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1809, he did a period of training in a military hospital at Ramsgate.

On returning to Quebec in 1810 Laterrière took over his father’s druggists shop and clientele. Early in 1812 he went into partnership with his younger brother Marc-Pascal de Sales Laterrière, who had recently returned from studying medicine in Philadelphia. At that time there were, other than Laterrière, few if any surgeons in Lower Canada with experience of military hospitals. Consequently on 24 April 1812 he was appointed surgeon to the Voltigeurs Canadiens, a militia regiment.

In 1815 he went to Europe to settle up a family estate, and married Mary Ann Bulmer in London on 16 August 1815. During his absence his father, Pierre de Sales Laterrière died.