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Adapted from "Lieutenant Commander Philip Eugene Garrison, Medical Corps, United States Navy, Deceased" [biography, dated 5 October 1950] in Modern Biographical Files collection, Navy Department Library.

Topic
  • Medicine
Document Type
  • Biography
Wars & Conflicts
  • World War I 1917-1918
File Formats
Location of Archival Materials
  • NHHC-Library

Philip Eugene Garrison

19 December 1877-22 September 1940

Philip Eugene Garrison was born in Burlington, New Jersey, on December 19, 1877, son of Reverend Charles Ford Garrison and Mrs. Hannah Sailor (Cline) Garrison. He received his education from Peddie Institute, Hightstown, New Jersey (1895); Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, AB 1900; George Washington University Medical School, MD 1905; and the Naval Medical School, Washington, DC, Postgraduate, General. He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity (Wesleyan) and. the American Medical Association.

Commissioned Assistant Surgeon, with the accompanying rank of Lieutenant (junior grade ), in the Medical Corps of the US Navy on June 1, 1906, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on June 1, 1909 and to Lieutenant Commander on August 29, 1916. He was retired in that rank on July 1, 1933.

After his appointment as Assistant Surgeon in the Medical Corps of the Navy on June 1, 1906 Dr. Garrison reported for brief duty at the Naval Hospital, of that year he had instruction at the Naval Medical School.

Dr. Garrison reported for brief duty at the Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From September to November of that year he had instruction at the Naval Medical School, Washington, DC, and on November 28 took passage from Seattle, Washington, to Manila, Philippine Islands, where he served until July 1909 as Medical Zoologist for the Bureau of Science. While there he also was Assistant Professor of Tropical Medicine at the Philippine University Medical School in Manila. He returned to the Naval Medical School in Washington in October 1909 for further instruction, and on March 18, 1910, became an Instructor in Medical Zoology and Tropical Medicine at that school.

On November 11, 1910, he accepted an honorary appointment as Assistant Custodian of the Helminthological Collections of the United States National Museum, and during the period 1912-1914 he was assigned to special duty as a Member of the Thompson McFadden Pellagra Commission. In 1914, also on special assignment, he went to Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he gave a course In Medical Zoology to the School of Tropical Medicine. On March 2, 1914, he was sent as a Delegate to represent the US Navy at a meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine at Boston, Massachusetts, May. 29 and 30, and was named Vice President of that Society.  

Sea duty from December 1, 1914, until March 25, 1916, included service in the USS Solace, hospital ship; the USS Washington and USS Tennessee, battleships; and the USS Dolphin, station ship at Port au  Prince, Haiti, where Dr. Garrison had additional duty as Quarantine  Officer. He was then transferred to the US Marine Expeditionary Forces at Santo Domingo, and during most of the World War I period served as Sanitary Advisor, US Occupation, Republic of Haiti, and Chief Sanitary Officer; American Occupation, Dominican Republic, with additional duty in charge of American Red Cross Haitian Relief.

In August 1918 he returned to the United States, and reported to Headquarters, Seventh Naval District, Key West, Florida, where he was assigned duty first at the Naval Hospital, and later at the Naval Station, Key West. Detached in May 1921, he served successively until July 1925 in the USS Connecticut, the USS Delaware, and for the last two years of that period in the USS Chewink, at the Submarine Base New London, Connecticut.

After several months’ duty at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he reported in August 1926 to the first Brigade, US Marines, Port au Prince, Haiti, where he had a second tour of duty until June 1928. He then returned to the United States, and on August 31, 1928, reported for duty at the Naval Ammunition Depot, Dover (Lake Denmark), New Jersey, where he served until May 1933. After treatment at the Naval Hospital, New York, New York, he was transferred to the Retired List of the Navy, by reason of physical disability, effe4ctive July 1, 1933. He died on September 22, 1940, at the Naval Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, survived by his wife and four children.

Lieutenant Commander Garrison had received the Haitian Campaign Medal (USS Washington); the Dominican Campaign Medal (USS Dolphin); and the World War I Victory Medal, West Indies Clasp (Marine Expeditionary Force, San Domingo, D.R.)

END

Published: Mon May 24 08:44:26 EDT 2021