(10 Jan. 1851-2 July 1923), publisher, temperance worker. (D. A. McDermid, Donald McDermid) Born Island Road, Martintown, though perhaps on the Stormont rather than the GC side of the county line. Parents: Angus McDermid and his wife Mary Sinclair. He was a partner with James M. Logan in the London, Ont., firm of McDermid & Logan, publishers and issuers of subscription books. From about 1880 to 1886, the firm McDermid & Logan was associated with the firm Smith Schuyler & Co., but from about 1887 the firm of McDermid & Logan was in business on its own. Surviving copies suggest that their publishing trade was mainly that of selling works printed elsewhere (mainly or wholly in the United States) with the name of McDermid and Logan, of London, Ont., added to the existing title page. Works they issued included the autobiography of P. T. Barnum, Major Ben C. Truman’s History of the World’s Fair: Being a Complete Description of the World’s Columbian Exposition, and three books (all illustrated) by the Rev. Henry Davenport Northrop: Earth, Sea and Sky or Marvels of the Universe (on natural history), Wonders of the Tropics (on African exploration), and Beautiful Gems of Thought and Sentiment (an anthology of poetry, prose and song). Some of the books may have been intended to be sold by travelling salesmen.
D. A. McDermid was active in the work of the Methodist Church in London, and in the temperance work of London. His interest in the temperance cause, and the example of his work on its behalf, resulted in his becoming “office secretary of the Ontario branch of the Dominion Alliance” in August 1910. (obituary) He moved to Toronto about this time, and Toronto was his home for the remainder of his life. He kept the office secretary position (also described as that of “field secretary”) till he was incapacitated by paralysis in 1920. He died in the Western Hospital, Toronto. While he was dying, his granddaughter was born in another ward of the hospital. He is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto. He was married to Janet Millar. (one child) He was the brother of Finlay McDermid. His brother Archibald married first the daughter of the Rev. John Matheson, and afterwards the daughter of the Rev. Daniel MacCallum, and was the father of Edith McDermid. Through his sister Janet Ann McDermid (Mrs Scott), Donald A. McDermid was the uncle of the Rev. Stanley Scott.
London Free Press 3 July 1923 * Toronto Mail & Empire 4 July 1923 (copy in biog. scrapbooks, Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library), repr. Cornwall Standard 12 July 1923 * Campbell (1986), 268-269, 285-288, 292-293 * London, Ont., business directories 1880-1887 * information kindly supplied (1996) by W. Glen Curnoe, London Room Librarian, London Public Library