Dr. Marr was born in King County, New Brunswick, August 10th, 1882, and educated at Tufts Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1907 he left his home and headed West with the intention of practicing his profession somewhere in British Columbia.
It was in the fall of that year that he visited Fort Langley for the first time.
He often told the story of his first night in the village - having supper, going for a walk. He soon came upon a “bridge” that he started to cross, but stopped abruptly when he noticed the stars reflecting in the water just ahead of him. He was at the edge of the wharf looking into the Fraser River. When he eventually established himself in Fort Langley, one of the first things he did as an involved citizen trying to develop his new community was to push for the installation of street lights.
In 1910, Dr. Marr began his practice in Fort Langley. Withy one other doctor, he was responsible for more than 9,000 patients.
In August 1914, Dr. Marr was the first man in Langley to offer his services and enlist as a soldier. On his return in 1914, he was made President of the Langley branch of the Great War Veterans Association and the first President of the Langley Branch of the Canadian Legion. He instigated the inauguration of Memorial Services in honour of the fallen soldiers and was the principle organizer of the creation of the cenotaphs that stand in the Murrayville and Fort Langley cemeteries, among the first to be built in Canada.
As early as 1929, there were committees formed to discuss the building of a ‘cottage hospital’ in Langley. The Langley branch of the Legion discussed this in November and appointed Dr. Marr and Archie Payne to a committee to investigate. It is thanks in no small part to his active participation in the community that the first hospital in Langley was built in 1948.
In 1928 Dr. Marr sold his home in Fort Langley and moved to a new home he had built on the hill east of Langley Prairie, now known as ‘hospital hill’. Here he lived until his death in 1939.
In his 57 years he had given freely of himself in the interests of his community and its people, a good village doctor, a leader and a highly respected citizen. He lies buried in the churchyard in Fort Langley.
Learn about the Dr. Benjamin B. Marr Legacy Circle
This article was adapted from the Hospital on the Hill book