The fonds consists of Dr. Henry Mather Hare's personal diaries; medical records; family correspondence, mainly of Dr. Henry Mather Hare, his wife Stella Hare, and his younger son, Henry Walsham (Buster) Hare; genealogical material on the Hare and related families; and a letter book of his ancestor Mather Byles Almon.
Hare, Henry Mather, 1863-1944 : Dr. Henry Mather Hare (1863-1944) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 20 April 1863. A descendant of the Loyalist clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Mather Byles (see MG 23, D 6), Dr. Henry Mather Hare was the son of William Almon Robert Hare (1820-1907) of Halifax and his wife Alice Mary Allison (1827-1901). His grandfather, Thomas Hare (d. 1822) of Mount Henry near Limerick, Ireland, was a major in the 97th regiment of foot. After a public school education and graduation from Dalhousie University, Dr. Hare became hospital surgeon with the Halifax Battalion and served in the North-West Rebellion of 1885. He completed his post-graduate work in surgery at the University of New York in 1889.
In 1893, Hare went out to West China as a medical missionary with the Canadian Methodist Mission and spent seven years in charge of their hospitals at various mission stations. In 1897, he married Estelle (Stella) Hart, daughter of the Dr. Virgil C. Hart, D.D. (1840-1904) of Burlington, Ontario, a former superintendent of Chinese missions for the Methodist Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. In 1900, during the period of the Boxer Rebellion, Hare served as staff interpreter in the 2nd Brigade of the China Expeditionary Force.
On his return from China at the end of 1901, Hare worked as a physician on staff at the Halifax City Dispensary and the Salvation Army Home. From 1905 to 1915, he was medical officer in charge of W.T. Grenfell's Deep-Sea Mission Hospital at Harrington Harbour, Quebec. During the summer, he travelled on the Quebec North Shore and Labrador coast by the schooner "Northern Messenger", and in the winter by dog-sled. During this period, he also lectured on his experience to raise money for Grenfell's mission hospitals.
In 1915, his wife's poor health led Hare to move to Delray, Florida, to farm, but in the following year he went to Nassau in the Bahamas to practise medicine. Later, he was appointed ADC to the Governor of the Bahamas and Colonial Surgeon. In the latter capacity, he travelled regularly to the out islands of the Bahamas. He retired from the government service in 1928 but continued in private practice. He died in Nassau in 1944.
