Colonel Cluny Macpherson CMG FRCS (March 18, 1879 – November 16, 1966) was a physician and the inventor of an early gas mask.

[1][2] After World War I he served as the president of the St. John's Clinical Society and the Newfoundland Medical Association.

[3] In 1902 he returned to Newfoundland joining the Labrador Mission begun by Dr. Wilfred Grenfell and ran the hospital in Battle Harbour.

[3] Returning to St. John's, Macpherson opened a private practice,[3] and eventually became the leading practitioner in Newfoundland.

[3] At the outset of World War I in August 1914 Macpherson was commissioned as a captain and Principal Medical Officer of the new 1st Newfoundland Regiment.

[4] The German army used poison gas for the first time against Allied troops at the Second Battle of Ypres, Belgium on April 22, 1915.

[6] Seeking to improve on the Black Veil respirator, Macpherson created a mask made of chemical absorbing fabric and which fitted over the head.

[3] At various times he was chairman of the Lunacy Commissioners, president of the St John Ambulance Council, and vice-president of the Newfoundland Division of the Canadian Red Cross Society.

[3] The family home at 65 Rennie's Mill Road, where he served as secretary, treasurer and registrar for the Newfoundland Medical Society[13] now has historic designation.