Alvinus Calder

Alvinus Calder
Alvinus Calder in the 1930s
Born	1892 (1892) Grenada
Died	1975 (aged 82–83) Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada
Occupation	Physician

Alvinus Calder (1892 – 1975) was a Grenada-born Canadian physician who operated a medical practice in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Calder worked to establish a church in the area, providing a place of worship for local West Indian emigrants who were facing discrimination. He was the President of the UNIA Liberty Hall in Sydney and spent his life advocating for religious and ethnic causes.

Biography

Calder was born in the island country of Grenada. He immigrated to Canada and attended St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto, being forced to leave by the university due to concerns that his presence would offend the other students on account of his race. He later attended Queens University, graduating in 1919 and subsequently moving to Sydney where he opened his medical practice in the Whitney Pier neighbourhood in 1920. Calder was a religious man and worked to establish the St. Philip's African Orthodox Church a permanent home in Sydney, providing a place of worship for local West Indian Episcopalians who were facing discrimination in the area. He owned a property on Kings Road in Sydney known as Calderwood.

Calder was an active member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and became the first President of the UNIA Liberty Hall in Sydney in 1919. He spent the remainder of his life in Sydney advocating for religious and ethnic causes.

Calder died in Sydney in 1975.

See also

• Black Nova Scotians

References

Sources

• Reynolds, Graham (2 March 2021). "GRAHAM REYNOLDS: Cape Breton's Beaton Institute preserves Black history". PNI Atlantic News. Postmedia Network. Archived from the original on 7 May 2025. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
• Goulem, Brigid (2 March 2018). "The forgotten legacies of Queen's Black medical students". Queens Journal. Queens University. Archived from the original on 25 March 2025. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
• Bonner, Claudine (2024). Cape Breton in the Long Twentieth Century (PDF). Athabasca University Press. ISBN 978-1-7719-9405-7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 July 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
• Fanfair, Ron (1 July 2019). "Posthumous degree for Trinidadian medical student unjustly expelled from Queen's". Stabroek News. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
• "African Nova Scotian Cultural Tourism Guide" (PDF). Office of African Nova Scotian Affairs. Government of Nova Scotia. 2012. p. 54. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 May 2025. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
• "Sixty-Three New Doctors to be Graduated at Queen's on Friday". The Weekly British Whig. Kingston, ON. 3 February 1919. Retrieved 7 May 2025 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

• Media related to Alvinus Calder at Wikimedia Commons
• Data related to Alvinus Calder at Wikidata