John McTimoney

John McTimoney 1915 - 1980

Born: Edgbaston, Birmingham

Trained by: Pioneer English Chiropractor Dr Mary Walker

Practice: Set up in 1951

Career: 30 years innovation of Chiropractic techniques

Animals: 1954 pioneered animal Chiropractic techniques

Teaching: 1972 founded School

School: Full-time teaching at School from 1974

During the Depression, John McTimoney’s initial ambition to set up a jewellery-making business had to be put aside and he took on farm work. Whilst thatching a hayrick, he fell from the top of a ladder and as a consequence gradually began losing the use of both of his arms and had difficulty walking.

By good fortune, his wife, Hilda, introduced him to Mr Ashford, a Chiropractor in Birmingham. Ashford had been trained by the originator of Chiropractic, D D Palmer in Davenport, USA. Over three years of treatments, John McTimoney regained his health and became fired with the ambition of becoming a Chiropractor himself.

Development of McTimoney Method Chiropractic

John McTimoney studied under Dr Mary Walker in Oxford. In around 1930, Dr Walker had sold up everything to go to America to train under the originator’s son, B J Palmer.

John McTimoney was to develop the treatment further so that it became a distinctive approach and a separate branch of Chiropractic. With some Chiropractors using vigorous techniques in the 1970s, he felt it necessary to give the method a name, simply to help patients to realise that Chiropractors may work in different ways.

A further innovation was the formulation of a Chiropractic analysis and treatment for animals in 1954. He is believed to be the first Chiropractor to do this.

Establishing the McTimoney College of Chiropractic

In 1972, already with 20 years’ experience in practice, he founded the Oxfordshire School of Chiropractic and took on a small group of pupils. From 1974 he devoted himself full time to the School and by the time of his death in 1980 most of the graduates were trained in the treatment of animals as well as people. Today, the College is one of only three in the UK offering recognised Chiropractic qualifications.

More about John McTimoney

Find out more about John McTimoney’s life on the McTimoney College website.