State Hospital and Medical League traces roots in Prince Albert.

A museum archive letter highlights Charles Lionel Dent's role in forming the State Hospital and Medical League in Prince Albert in 1936 and the group's long campaign that contributed to Saskatchewan's hospitalization plan in 1947.

A letter in the Bill Smiley Archives recalls early local efforts to organise public medical services in Prince Albert and notes how some residents later credited others nationally for medicare. Charles Lionel Dent, born May 25, 1889, served in the First World War and settled in Prince Albert after marrying Mary Curran. Discussions among a small group of neighbours and former penitentiary colleagues in the late 1920s and early 1930s led to research into state medical plans abroad and to public meetings in the mid-1930s. The State Hospital and Medical League held its first official meeting on April 24, 1936, aiming to promote the socialization of medical services and to raise awareness through local outreach. Key details: - A letter from British Columbia in the Bill Smiley Archives expresses that Charles Lionel Dent was remembered by some as an originator of the programme that led to state-provided medical services. - Dent was born in Cowansville, Quebec in 1889, served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War, and later worked in Prince Albert as a grocer after employment at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary. - Small discussion groups from the late 1920s and early 1930s researched overseas state medical plans and decided to hold public discussions when public opinion seemed more receptive by 1936. - The League’s first meeting on April 24, 1936 set membership fees (25 cents per person, $5 for organisations), adopted aims to socialise the province’s medical structure, and planned outreach such as a first aid booth at the Prince Albert Fair. - By 1945 the League reported affiliations with six cities, thirty-four towns, and 166 organisations and continued advocacy for district hospitals and tax-funded medical services. - Provincial change followed over time: a Hospitalization Services Plan was announced about eleven years after the League’s founding, and pioneers later placed a plaque in the Prince Albert Historical Museum in the 1970s recognising Dent’s work, while noting that medicare as commonly understood arrived later. Summary: The State Hospital and Medical League began as a small, locally rooted effort in Prince Albert that researched international examples and campaigned for tax-funded medical care. Its advocacy contributed to shifts in provincial policy that culminated in a hospitalization plan in the late 1940s, and local pioneers later sought formal recognition of Charles Lionel Dent's role. Undetermined at this time.