Historical figures who made Goderich: Doctor William ‘Tiger’ Dunlop, ‘The Backwoodsman’

Doctor William ‘Tiger’ Dunlop

A burial plot stands alone in a quiet clearing along the Maitland Trail, on a bluff overlooking the Maitland River.

A stone-walled tomb enclosure are the last remnants of Gairbraid, a small town that was never built, named after a town near Glasgow, Scotland.

This is where Dr. William ‘Tiger’ Dunlop was buried in 1848.

A physician, author, woodsman, soldier, politician and raconteur, Dunlop assisted John Galt and the Canada Company in opening the Huron Tract and founding Goderich in 1827.

Born in Greenock, Scotland in 1792, Dunlop served in Canada as an army surgeon during the War of 1812, was Warden of the Forests with the Canada Company in 1837, and was an MPP for Huron, Parliament of Canada from 1841-1845.

The son of a local banker, Dunlop was educated in Greenock and pursued his medical studies at the University of Glasgow and in London.

He passed his army medical examinations in December 1812 and was appointed assistant surgeon in 1813.

Arriving in Upper Canada in 1813, Dunlop was involved in the Battle of Crysler’s Farm and Lundy’s Lane, the latter being one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

A few years following the War of 1812, Dunlop left Canada to go to India where he was given the nickname ‘Tiger’, when he was unsuccessful at clearing tigers from Sagar Island in the Bay of Bengal to turn the place into a tourist resort.

In 1820, Dunlop returned to Scotland because of a fever contracted on Sagar, and a few years later he was lecturing in Edinburgh and London.

Dunlop also wrote and published books and articles, telling of his wartime experiences and his work in the development of Canada.

According to many accounts of the time, Dunlop was a remarkable six-foot-three man with fiery red hair and a large appetite for whisky and tall tales.

Another Scottish novelist, John Galt, was part of the creation and implementation of a land and colonisation organisation intended to operate in Upper Canada.

It was chartered in 1826 as the Canada Company and later that year, Dunlop, submitted a plan to Galt to assist potential emigrants.

When he returned to Canada, Dunlop was an active participant in the founding of Guelph, and later, was appointed by Canada Company Superintendent, Galt, as Warden of the Woods and Forests in 1825.

His official task was to inspect the Canadian lands the company had contracted for, determine which lots might be sold, and stop the destruction of the timber.

Dunlop travelled through the bush to the future site of Goderich and accompanied a party of road-cutters to the spot.

He soon set up home just north of Goderich.

Dunlop was instrumental in attracting clever, young people to Upper Canada. According to accounts he was very much a company man and served the company well, but as its activities become more conventional, he was less enchanted with it.

Dunlop resigned from the Canada Company in 1838.

His resignation further widened a growing schism between those for and those against the Canada Company in Huron County.

He was a leader with the anti-company faction known as the Colbornites, since many lived in Colborne Township.

In 1841, he became the second person to serve as MPP for Huron, his brother Robert had been the first. During his time in parliament, Dunlop also served as the first warden of the district of Huron.

Following disputes with the Canada Company over taxation, Dunlop was replaced as warden in 1846.

Known for his witty speeches in parliament, his career was short and he soon accepted a position at the Lachine Canal in Montreal.

Dunlop unknowingly would spend his last years quite a distance from Huron County and Goderich.

It was while in Montreal that Dunlop fell ill and died June 29, 1848, at the age of 56.

Twenty-one years after the founding of Goderich.

The Montreal Gazette, 1848, wrote that, ‘Dunlop was a man of high spirit of loyalty and personal independence; of much learning as well as social brilliancy; and with a spirit of vigorous sarcasm, used so discreetly that do not believe he had an enemy in the world…the work he leaves behind him conveys a very inadequate idea of his talents. His remains will be removed, to be interred on some property he had acquired on the shores of Lake Huron’.

During his years working with the Canada Company, Dunlop was also given the nickname ‘The Backwoodsman’ because of his living in unsettled areas of Upper Canada.

An author, explorer, politician, surgeon, and one of the founders of Goderich, Dr. William ‘Tiger’ Dunlop was a man who helped put Goderich on the map and served more than half his life for the development of Canada.

The lake, rivers and forests of the Huron Tract would eventually become Dunlop’s permanent home and final resting place.

This is an ongoing series of historical features to tell the story of Goderich, in each issue of the Goderich Sun, from June 2026 until June 2027, in anticipation of its bicentennial.