Business card

This photograph shows English-born physician, MP and patriot Robert Nelson (1794-1873). He studied medicine in Montreal, then at Harvard University. After completing his studies, he returned to Montreal, where he practiced and built up a clientele.

In 1827, he received the call of politics and was elected Member of Parliament for Montreal West. Finding politics incompatible with his profession, he withdrew in 1830, but ran again in 1834 and was re-elected in Montreal West. Nelson took an active part in the patriot movement, which became increasingly assertive against the British authorities, but he did not take part in the uprisings of 1837. At the end of 1837, he went into exile in the United States with several other leaders of the Patriote Party.

Embodying the radical, revolutionary fringe of the exiled patriots, Nelson was appointed general of the army, declared the independence of Lower Canada (Quebec) and led the second insurrection in 1838. However, the uprising ended in bitter failure, and was severely repressed by the British army. Following this setback, Nelson left to practice medicine for a time in the American West, then in New York, where he died in 1873.