Hugh Ernest MacDermot was born in Jamaica in 1888 and received his medical training at McGill, graduating in 1913. He served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps during World War I. He was Lecturer in Anatomy at McGill, 1921-1924, and Demonstrator in Medicine, 1925-1949, and was on the staff of the Montreal General Hospital. He also served as instructor in Clinical Medicine at McGill. MacDermot was a historian and among his published works are biographies of Maude Abbott and Sir Thomas Roddick and histories of the Montreal General Hospital, the Canadian Medical Association, the Royal Edward Institute and the Christ Church Cathedral in Montreal. In 1942, he became editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.