Person

Peebles, Allon

1900-1962

Allon Peebles was born on October 20, 1900, in New Westminster. He graduated from UBC in 1920 and earned a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. Peebles taught economics at the University of California and later at Columbia. He also worked with a committee in the United States on the costs of medical care. He married Noeline Bruce in 1926, and they had three daughters: Priscilla, Jane, and Noeline. A medical and labour research economist, Peebles was chairperson of B.C.'s first Health Insurance Commission in 1936 and helped fashion the B.C. Hospital Insurance Service. Peebles and Harry Morris Cassidy wrote the 1936 Health Insurance Act. In 1941, Peebles went to Ottawa as the first executive director of the Unemployment Commission and was in charge of the labour department's research and statistics. In addition, he wrote several books on medical facilities, insurance and care. After retiring from the labour department in 1947, Peebles entered a private business in Chatham, Ontario. He died in Ottawa on March 13, 1962.