Albert Ernest Broome MD

Doon Pioneer Village, now Doon Heritage Village, is a monument to the memory of Dr. A.E. Broome, a Kitchener physician and radiologist who conceived the idea while visiting a pioneer community near Arnhem in Holland. He spent countless hours visiting curators of similar museums in the USA, promoting the idea, raising funds and forming a board that eventually acquired land. The first buildings were brought to the site before ill health forced his retirement.

Dr. Broome, who was born in Renfrew, had taught school in Saskatchewan before entering Queen’s University. His education was interrupted by service with an Army Medical Corps during World War I. Contracting tuberculosis while overseas, he returned to Canada, continued his medical studies while an ambulant patient in the Kingston Sanitarium, and graduated from Queen’s in 1919. He served at Petawawa and Chorley Park Military Hospitals during World War II and was awarded a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal for his outstanding work.