Korea-Canada relations date back to 1888, when Canadian missionary James Scarth Gale of Toronto was the first sent to Korea. Reverend Gale created the first Korea-English dictionary and prepared the first Korean translation of the Christian Bible. Furthermore, Gale wrote the first substantial history of Korea in English. He also founded the YMCA in South Korea.
Dr, Oliver Avison, a noted scholar and philanthropist, was a professor at the University of Toronto medical school and the personal physician for the mayor of the City of Toronto. When Horace Underwood came to Toronto to recruit doctors to serve at the Royal Hospital in Seoul Avison kept thinking, “Why only young doctors, why not me?” Dr. Avison not only became a personal physician to King Gojong, but he also founded the Severance Hospital in Seoul and the medical college that became Yonsei University.