William George Beers (May 5, 1843 – December 26, 1900) was a Canadian dentist who founded Canada's first dental journal and served as the founding dean of the Dental College of the Province of Quebec. In addition, he is referred to as the "father of modern

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

" for his work establishing the first set of playing rules for the game.

Dentistry

Beers was a successful and notable dentist. After finishing his schooling in 1856, Beers completed a dental apprenticeship. By the early 1860s, Beers was a successful dentist and began publishing article in journals. In 1868, he founded Canada's first dental journal, the ''Canada Journal of Dental Science''. Although this publication failed, he went on to start the Dominion Dental Journal in 1889, which eventually became the modern day

Journal of the Canadian Dental Association The ''Journal of the Canadian Dental Association'' (JCDA) is a bimonthly peer-reviewed dental journal published by the Canadian Dental Association. It is more commonly referred to by its web address JCDA.ca, owing to its evolution into a print ...

. He was instrumental in the founding of Quebec's first dental college - the Dental College of the Province of Quebec, founded in 1892 and served as its founding dean. In 1896, this College became affiliated with

Bishop's University Bishop's University (french: Université Bishop's) is a small English-language liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Bishop of Quebec, George Mountain, w ...

and later became the

McGill University Faculty of Dentistry The Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. It became established as a constituent of McGill University in 1904 as the McGill Dental School, a department in the McGill Universit ...

. He held the position of Dean at Bishop's for only a short time; differences in opinion regarding curriculum and concerns over the use of untrained dental assistants led Beers to resign from the position.

Nationalism

Beers was a strong Canadian nationalist. Besides advocating for lacrosse to become the national sport of Canada believing it would serve as "unifying symbol for the emerging Canadian nationality," Beers also defended the country against the Fenian Raids in 1866 and 1870. During the raids, Beers helped establish the Victoria Rifles of Canada.

Lacrosse

William Beers was involved with lacrosse from a young age. As a teenager in 1856 he was a member of the

Montreal Lacrosse Club The Montreal Lacrosse Club was a lacrosse club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Club is notable in the history of lacrosse as it was responsible for establishing the first set of written rules of the game. The Club was established in 1856 by the ...

. He was selected at the age of 17 to be a goalkeeper for a

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

exhibition team that played a match before the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

. In 1860, Beers began to codify the first written rules of the modern game. Prior to this, all rules of the game needed to be decided prior to each game. Some of the rules established by Beers were the size of, and the use of a rubber

lacrosse ball A lacrosse ball is the solid rubber ball that is used, with a lacrosse stick, to play the sport of lacrosse. It is typically white for men's lacrosse, or yellow for women's Lacrosse; but is also produced in a wide variety of colours. The old NCA ...

, that the lacrosse stick could be any length, but the pocket needed to be flat in the absence of a ball, length of the field to , size of the goal and goal crease, twelve members of a team on the field at a time, and the length of a match to first to reach five goals, or lead by three. In 1867, as lacrosse was growing significantly in popularity, Beers created the ''Canadian National Lacrosse Foundation''. In 1869, Beers published a book on lacrosse entitled ''Lacrosse: The National Game of Canada''. In 1876, Beers organized a team of Canadian players and Indians players to tour

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

to showcase the sport. During this trip in 1876,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

witnessed an exhibition game and was impressed, saying "The game is very pretty to watch." Her endorsement was enough for many English girls' schools to adopt the sport in the 1890s. Again in 1883, Beers returned to England to showcase lacrosse. This time Beers brought two teams to play exhibition game.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beers, William 1843 births 1900 deaths Canadian dentists Canadian lacrosse players Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Pre-Confederation Quebec people Sports inventors and innovators 19th-century dentists