John Clarence Webster CMG FRSE FRSC (21 October 1863 – 16 March 1950) was a Canadian physician, surgeon, and pioneer in Obstetrics and gynaecology, topics upon which he wrote several textbooks.

[1][2][3][4] After his retirement in 1920 he became a historian, specializing in the history of his native New Brunswick, and a supporter of efforts to preserve heritage and historic sites.

Webster was educated at Mount Allison College where he matriculated in 1878 and obtained a general Bachelor of Arts degree in 1882.

[7] He obtained his doctorate (MD) in 1891[8] Enormously successful, by 1895 he was living at 20 Charlotte Square, one of the most exclusive addresses in Edinburgh.

[11] In 1896, after thirteen years absence, he returned to Canada in 1896 and settled in Montreal where he was appointed Lecturer in Gynecology at McGill University and Assistant Gynecologist to the Royal Victoria Hospital.

The Baldy-Webster Operation is named after him: Webster first described the method of treating retrodisplacement of the uterus in 1901 and James Montgomery Baldy modified it in 1903.

[13] Webster became a Trustee of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, a Member of the Historic and Monuments Board of Canada, and the Honorary Curator of Fort Beausejour Museum, for which he was responsible.

Apart from his writings which remain definitive sources on many subjects, it was with the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada that he perhaps had his most lasting influence.

The youngest son, Dr. William L. Webster (1903–1975), was a physicist and mathematician who worked under Ernest Rutherford and Sir James Chadwick, and he was Secretary to the Manhattan Project.