F is for Fire following Plague

Earlier this year we were forced to flee from a catastrophic bushfire on the Australian east coast. It burnt out an area the size of England. Now, just a few months later, we’re self-quarantined against the COVID-19 plague, at home with the doors shut, permitted out only to buy food.

We Antipodeans, of course, got it the wrong way around. London had its plague first, from 1665, then its fire, in 1666. Whatever the order of events, of course, catastrophes are no fun for anybody.

In a year and half, the Great Plague of London – a rapid-spreading bacterial infection, rather than a virus – killed nearly 100,000 people, a quarter of the city’s population.

As it spread, a system of quarantine was introduced. A house where someone had died from plague would be locked, with no one allowed to enter or leave for 40 days. A plague house was marked with a red cross on the door and the words “Lord have mercy upon us”, and a watchman stood guard in the street.

Nine images of the Great Plague of London in 1665 from The great plague in London in 1665 by Walter George Bell From the Wellcome Trust CC-BY-4.0,  retrieved through Wikimedia Commons 

 

I have an ancestor who was a doctor at the time, probably a plague doctor. This was Ichabod Chauncy (abt 1635 – 1691), one of my 8th great grandfathers. Like his father, Ichabod Chauncy was a clergyman, but in 1662 he was forced to leave the clergy, one of some 2,000 Puritan ministers forced out for what were deemed to be their unorthodox beliefs. He took up the profession of medicine instead, and in 1666 he was admitted to the College of Physicians. It seems very probable that Ichabod Chauncy treated victims of the plague and wore the plague-doctors’ beak-like mask filled with aromatic herbs designed to protect the wearer from putrid air, which according to the miasmatic theory of disease was the cause of infection.

1661 Medical costume for the plague:  illustration opposite page 142 from Thomas Bartholin (1661). Thomae Bartholini Historiarum anatomicarum [et] medicarum rariorum centuria V. [et] VI. Accessit Joannis Rhodii Mantissa anatomica. Typis Henrici Gödiani. p 142.

Then came the fire, a huge conflagration which burned for four days in September 1666, completely destroying the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall. The homes of 70,000 people, more than three-quarters of the population of the city, were burnt to ashes. There were officially only six deaths; many went unrecorded.

Great Fire of London by an unknown artist about 1675 retrieved from Wikimedia Commons. “This painting shows the great fire of London as seen from a boat in vicinity of Tower Wharf. The painting depicts Old London Bridge, various houses, a drawbridge and wooden parapet, the churches of St Dunstan-in-the-West and St Bride’s, All Hallow’s the Great, Old St Paul’s, St Magnus the Martyr, St Lawrence Pountney, St Mary-le-Bow, St Dunstan-in-the East and Tower of London. The painting is in the [style] of the Dutch School and is not dated or signed.”

After the fire, London was rebuilt on essentially the same street plan. About three-fifths of the City of London had been destroyed: 13,200 houses, most great public buildings, St Paul’s Cathedral and 87 parish churches. Rebuilding housing took until the 1670s. Public buildings took longer, with St Paul’s finished only in 1711. This program had a modernising effect, for the city was now less dense, with only 9,000 houses rebuilt and not all churches and public buildings replaced.

Map of central London in 1666, showing landmarks related to the Great Fire of London. Drawn by Wikipedia user Bunchofgrapes and retrieved from Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

 

It is interesting that despite being separated from the events in London by 355 years and half way around the globe, we are experiencing similar catastrophes and coping along the same lines.

Surgeon James Gordon Cavenagh at Waterloo

A guest post by Diana Beckett; great great granddaughter of James Gordon Cavenagh.

Miniature of James Gordon Cavenagh in the possession of a granddaughter of Lt Col W.O. Cavenagh

 

Lt Col W.O. Cavenagh, (Wentworth Odiarne / WOC / Cousin Wenty) who did extensive research on our Cavenagh ancestry, was the grandson of the surgeon. The latter died in 1844 and WOC was born in 1856, so they never met. However, WOC knew as family tradition related by his father (Gen Sir Orfeur Cavenagh) that the surgeon had served at Waterloo, but was puzzled that he never received the Waterloo medal awarded to all those who served there. This therefore raised the question to later generations as to whether it was indeed true.

J G Cavenagh was the Staff Surgeon of the Royal Staff Corps, a regiment responsible for short term military engineering, which was stationed in Flanders from April to July 1815. The Battle was on June 28th.

In his book “The Bloody Fields of Waterloo”, M.K.H Crumplin, a retired surgeon, medical military historian much involved in Waterloo re-enactments,  meticulously lists all the surgeons present at Waterloo or working with the wounded in the aftermath. Cavenagh is listed on page 157 as a late arrival. Presumably he was not ordered from his Flanders base to the battlefield in time.

On page 148 Crumplin explains that surgeons who arrived late were not awarded the Waterloo medal nor the two years added pension rights.

“There must have been many a military medical man who wished he had been present at this monumental battle. The staff who were there, were mostly surgeons both in regimental and staff posts. Some arrived late and would not receive the coveted Waterloo medal and two years added pension rights.” See Appendix below.

Arriving late, Cavenagh would have worked after the battle in one of the several hospitals in either Brussels or Antwerp where the wounded were treated. We do not know how long he stayed in Belgium but WOC records that sometime after the battle he proceeded to Paris where he was joined by his wife. (GO471 p 29)
An internet search shows that at least 3 officers of the Royal Staff Corps did receive the Waterloo medal.

Cavenagh is also mentioned in the Medico Chirurgical Transactions 1816 (Volume 7, part 1) when he was consulted about an operation on the jaw and mouth of a young drummer. The wound healed and the young man was discharged on August 16th.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=XvK3l9ZKvHsC&pg=PA108

P148 Crumplin Bloody Fields of Waterloo.

Related post

• N is for neighbours

N is for neighbours

My 3rd great grandfather was James Gordon Cavenagh (1770-1844), an army surgeon who was with the Royal Staff Corps at Waterloo.

Cavenagh obtained his diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1795-6 he first saw active service, with the 83rd Foot in the so-called ‘Maroon War’ in Jamaica. On 21 February 1800 he transferred to the Royal Staff Corps. The Royal Staff Corps was a corps of the British Army responsible for military engineering which was founded in about 1800 and disbanded in about 1837.

In March 1815 Cavenagh married Anne Coates. They lived at Hythe, Kent, where the Corps was headquartered and had eight children.

View at Hythe; illustration to Ayton’s ‘Voyage round Great Britain‘, vol. VII. 1823.  Print maker, draughtsman and publisher  William Daniell. In the collection of the British Museum retrieved through watercolourworld.org https://www.watercolourworld.org/painting/hythe-tww00a352

Engraving of “The Barracks and Town of Hythe, Kent” from Ireland’s History of Kent, Vol. 4, 1831. It appears between pages 224 and 225. Drawn by G. Sheppard, engraved by C. Bedford. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

On 25 June 1825 Cavenagh retired on half pay, afterwards continuing to live at Hythe.

In 1830 he leased a house next to the Royal Staff Corps Barracks, which earlier had been connected with it. There was a gate in the fence between the house and the barracks and the Royal Staff Corps decided to remove the gate and close up the fence. Cavenagh took exception to the this, and threatened the men removing the gate with drawn sword, saying, “I’ll run the first man through the body that attempts to touch the palings”. There was a brawl but eventually the fence was erected. When the matter went to court a jury found against Cavenagh and awarded 10 pounds damages. [The amount, hard to express in today’s money, would come to somewhere between £500 and £10,000.]

Hull Packet 17 August 1830 page 2 digitised by the British Library Board and retrieved through FindMyPast

In 1834 Cavenagh became the mayor of Hythe and was still living there in 1837. He died at Castle House, Wexford, Ireland in 1844 and is buried in Wexford in the family vault in St Patrick’s Abbey.

The Royal Staff Corps Barracks has gone, with the site from 1968 occupied by a Sainsburys supermarket and carpark. The only surviving part of the barracks complex is Hay House on Sir John Moore Avenue. It was built in 1809 and became the Commandant’s House. It is now subdivided into 6 flats.

It would seem that Hay House is the house that J. G. Cavenagh rented. The Mainwarings of Whitmore family history states

During the short peace between the Peninsular war and Waterloo James Cavenagh was quartered with this corps at Hythe, where he met and married his wife. On the termination of the campaign he returned with this regiment to Hythe, and when it was disbanded he remained there for some years, living in the Commandant’s house which he rented from the Authorities and in which all his children were born.

Hay House, Sir John Moore Avenue, Hythe, glimpsed from the entrance to the Sainsbury’s Loading Dock. Image from Google Street View May 2009 https://goo.gl/maps/BsWaHM8Kzxk

Sources

• The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford. An account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent; with special reference to the Manor of Whitmore. J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring, about 1935
• John Booth (1816). The Battle of Waterloo: containing the series of accounts published by authority, British and foreign, with circumstantial details, relative to the battle, from a variety of authentic and original sources, with connected official documents, forming an historical record of the operations in the campaign of the Netherlands, 1815 : to which is added the names alphabetically arranged, of the officers killed and wounded, from 15th to 26th June, 1815, and the total loss of each regiment, with an enumeration of the Waterloo honours and privileges, conferred upon the men and officers, and lists of regiments, &c. entitled thereto : illustrated by a panoramic sketch of the field of battle, and a plan of the positions at Waterloo, at different periods, with a general plan of the campaign. Printed for John Booth …, T. Egerton … and J. Fairbairn … (Edinburgh). p. 20.
• Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London (1816). Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. Longmans, Green and Company. p. 108.
• “No. 18174“. The London Gazette. 10 September 1825. p. 1649.
• Hull Packet 17 August 1830, page 2 digitised by the British Library Board and retrieved through FindMyPast

• Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser 8 February 1834, page 8 digitised by the British Library Board and retrieved through FindMyPast

• Paton, David. “Hythe’s Guides Town Walks (p. 38).” Hythe Life Magazine Spring Edition Issue 12, Hythe Life Magazine, Mar. 2017, issuu.com/hythelifemagazine/docs/hythe_life_magazine_-.
• Hay House.” Historic England, historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1068931.

Sister Minnie Goldstein

Looking at some paintings by Nora Heysen recently, I was delighted to discover that one was of a relative of mine, my second cousin twice removed, Minnie Sutherland Goldstein (1908-1984). She was my grandfather’s second cousin, one of the children of Selwyn Goldstein (1873-1917) and Minnie Waters Goldstein née Sutherland (1883-1952).

Minnie’s father Selwyn was a mining engineer, manager of the Mount Cattlin Copper Mining Company near Ravensthorpe, a couple of hundred kilometres west of Esperance in Western Australia. Minnie was born there on 13 August 1908.

On 13 October, with Minnie only two months old, the family moved to England, sailing on the Runic from Albany to Plymouth.

In 1909 the Goldsteins moved to Mexico where for two years Selwyn managed a large mine. They were forced to return to England, however, by the upheavals and danger of the Mexican Revolution.

On 9 November 1915 Selwyn Goldstein enlisted in the 173rd Company of the Royal Engineers. On 8 June 1917, during the Battle of Messines, where he had a part in blowing up the ridge the day before, he died of a gunshot wound, self-inflicted.

In 1922, Minnie’s mother and her four children – Minnie was then 13 – returned to Australia, where they settled in Perth.

THE DAUGHTER OF MRS. M W. GOLDSTEIN, OF WEST PERTH, MISS MINNIE GOLDSTEIN. from 17 March 1927. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 – 1954), p. 4  Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38002701

Digitised newspapers and other records held by the National Library give us glimpses of Minnie’s life. In November 1922 Minnie wrote to the Children’s Page of the Perth Daily News. In 1923 Minnie played lawn tennis for her school, but she lost the game. She was at school at St Mary’s Church of England Grammar in year V and won a prize for divinity; her sister Isobel was in the same year and won prizes for divinity and languages. In 1926 she was at many events including a party, a dance at the rowing club, the Children’s Hospital Ball.

By December 1926 Minnie was training as a nurse at the Perth Hospital. The social whirl seems to have continued, and Miss Minnie Goldstein was often mentioned in the society columns.

In 1930 Minnie became engaged to Jack Round-Turner. The marriage did not go ahead.

Minnie Goldstein enlisted in the Australian Army on 28 August 1942. In 1944 she was painted by the war artist Nora Heysen in Alexishafen, Papua New Guinea while working in the blood bank of 111 Australian Casualty Clearing Station.

Sister Minnie Sutherland Goldstein, WX32605, of the Australian Army Nursing Service working in the blood bank of 111 Australian Casualty Clearing Station, Alexishafen, New Guinea. She is working on medical equipment relating to blood bank services such as blood transfusions. She was painted by Nora Heysen, official war artist in 1944. The painting is in the collection of the Australian War Memorial ART23921

Map showing Alexishafen, 23 kilometres north of Madang on the north coast of Papua New Guinea

South Alexishafen, New Guinea. 1944-08-08. Officers and members of the nursing service on the staff of the 111th Australian Casualty Clearing Station. Identified personnel include WFX32604 Sister M.S. Goldstein (8). From Australian War Memorial photograph 075085.

South Alexishafen, New Guinea. 1944-08-08. Walking patients find humour in another patients getting a blood transfusion at the 111th Casualty Clearing Station. Identified personnel include:- WFX32605 Sister M. Goldstein (1) Australian War Memorial photograph 075083

South Alexishafen, New Guinea. 1944-08-08. Sisters of the 111th Casualty Clearing Station enjoying a walk along the shores of the bay in the cool of the evening. Identified personnel include:- WFX32605 Sister M.S. GOLDSTEIN (7) Australian War memorial photograph 075087

South Alexishafen, New Guinea. 1944-08-08. Sisters of the 111th Casualty Clearing Station outside their quarters. Identified personnel include:- WFX32605 Sister M.S. GOLDSTEIN (7) Australian War Memorial photograph 075086

 

Sister Goldstein was discharged from the Australian Army on 17 February 1947 with the rank of Lieutenant. Her posting at discharge was 2/1 Australian General Hospital.

Minnie returned to work as a sister at the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth.

In 1956 Minnie married Maxwell Percival Rose (1915-1973). Minnie died in Perth on 5 April 1984.

Related Posts

• P is for Poperinghe New Military Cemetery

Sources

• PROGRESSIVE RAVENSTHORPE. (1907, January 30). The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 – 1950), p. 3 (THIRD EDITION). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83311792
• PHILLIPS RIVER FIELD. (1907, October 10). Kalgoorlie Miner (WA : 1895 – 1950), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90385275
• Runic shipping list retrieved through ancestry.com: Surrey, England; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists.;Class: BT26; Piece: 347; Item: 97
• A LADY’S LETTER (1911, June 20). Kalgoorlie Western Argus (WA : 1896 – 1916), p. 11. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article33392744 gives an account of Minnie’s mother in Mexico entertaining, at their own invitation, the leader of the rebels and several of his followers at dinner.
• Euripedes outward passenger shipping list retrieved through ancestry.com, similarly the inwards list from State Records Office of Western Australia; Albany: Inward Passenger List from Overseas 1900-1932; Accession: 108; Item: 2; Roll: 17
• DIPS FROM MY LETTER BAG. (1922, November 18). The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 – 1950), p. 14. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83156187
• Engagement: He’s Bought the Ring (1930, October 25). Mirror (Perth, WA : 1921 – 1956), p. 13. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75492890 and The Social Whirl and Personal Pars on Prominent People (1930, October 19). Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 – 1954), p. 25. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58401391
• World War 2 nominal roll: Minnie Sutherland Goldstein
• Film of women’s work at 2/1 Australian General Hospital in Papua New Guinea 1945

L is for Lilian

My third cousin four times removed, who was also the sister-in law of my third great uncle, was Dr Lilian Helen Alexander (1861-1934), one of the first woman doctors in Australia.

Lilian was the second of three children of Thomas Alexander (c. 1820-1888) and Jane Alexander nee Furnell (1818-1908). Their oldest daughter was Constance (1858-1913) and they also had a son, Albert Durer Alexander (1863-1933).

 

Family tree showing the Alexander and Cudmore cousin connection

 

The Alexanders lived in South Yarra. Thomas was employed as a printer for the Government but lost his job in the Victorian Government political crisis of January 1878. In 1878 and 1879 he operated a bookselling business. From 1873 Jane, Mrs Alexander, ran a Ladies’ College, which took boarders, called “Lawn House”. This began at William Street, South Yarra. From 1879 the school advertised that the principals were Mrs Alexander and the Misses Alexander: Lilian and Constance were teaching too. In 1883 the school moved from William Street – Lawn House was required by the railway – to Springfield House, 13 Murphy Street, South Yarra, later renumbered to 17.

Lilian was educated at her mother’s school and then for one year at Presbyterian Ladies’ College. In 1883 she entered the University of Melbourne as one of a small group of women who studied Arts. She was the first woman student of Trinity College. She gained her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1886 and her Master of Arts in 1888. The 1887 advertisement for the school proudly announced her achievements.

 

Advertising (1887, January 29). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11588121

 

In 1887 Lilian applied to study medicine and was one of the first women medical students at Melbourne. She obtained her Bachelor of Medicine in 1893 and her BCh (Baccalaureus Chirurgiae or Bachelor of Surgery)  in 1901.

 

First group of female medical students at the University of Melbourne, 1887. Description: Standing (l. to r.) Helen Sexton, Lilian Alexander, Annie (or Elizabeth) O’Hara. Seated (l. to r.) Clara Stone, Margaret Whyte, Grace Vale, Elizabeth (or Annie) O’Hara. Retrieved from https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/librarycollections/2011/07/12/237/

 

In 1895 Lilian was inaugural secretary of the Victorian Women’s Medical Association, and later its president. Her first appointment was at the Women’s Hospital in Carlton, and she was one of the inaugural staff members of the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women and Children, which was established in 1897.

In 1891 Lilian’s sister Constance (1858-1913) married their third cousin Milo Robert Cudmore (1852-1913). Milo was the brother of my great great grandfather James Francis Cudmore (1837-1912).

Milo and Constance had four sons:

• Francis Alexander Cudmore 1892–1956
• Ernest Osmond Cudmore 1894–1924
• Arthur Sexton Cudmore 1897–1974
• Wilfred Milo Cudmore 1899–1965

In January 1913 Constance Cudmore died at the Alexander family home in Murphy Street, South Yarra. In July, six months later, Milo also died at South Yarra. Lilian, still living at 17 Murphy Street South Yarra, assumed the care of  the four orphans,  then aged between 14 and 21.

Lilian practiced medicine until 1928. She died on 18 October 1934.

OBITUARY (1934, October 20). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 24. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10983054

 

In April 1936 Arthur Sexton Cudmore and his two surviving brothers, Francis Alexander Cudmore and Wilfred Milo Cudmore  presented a bas relief sculpture by the notable Australian sculptor Web Gilbert to the University of Melbourne in honour of their aunt Dr Lilian Helen Alexander.

The sculpture “Wheel of Life” by Web Gilbert in the foyer of the Medical Building Grattan Street, University of Melbourne.

 

Sources

• Farley Kelly, ‘Alexander, Lilian Helen (1861–1934)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/alexander-lilian-helen-12770/text23037, published first in hardcopy 2005
• Chiron : Journal of the Melbourne University Medical Society. The Society, Parkville, Vic, 1988. “The Wheel of Life” – The Alexander Memorial by Robin Orams. Volume 2, Number 1, page 35

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Notes from a toy hospital 1919

Among various documents kept by my family is “Stuffed Notes”, the hand-written newsletter of an imaginary hospital, composed in 1919 by my grandmother Kathleen Cavenagh Cudmore (1908–2013), when she was eleven.

Kathleen’s father was Arthur Murray Cudmore (1870-1951), an Adelaide surgeon. Her mother, Kathleen Cudmore (1874-1951), was much involved in charity work.

“Stuffed Notes” seems to be based on overheard scraps of dinner-time conversation, which Kathleen adapted and re-worked into the newsletter of a 50-bed hospital ‘for any diseases, infectious or not’. She herself was Matron.

Kathleen and her sister Rosemary

 

The transcription below retains my grandmother’s spelling and grammar.

Stuffed Notes

The Hospital telephone number has changed from 36 to 4506.

This Hospital is for any diseases infectious or not. There is a nicely equipped isolation hospital for infectious diseases.

Stuffed Notes will be published monthly. The charge is a 1d a year.

The Hospital will hold fifty beds. Children can be kept at the hospital when they are convalescent if parents wish.

The Doctors are

Dr Binks

Dr Bronte

Dr Sam

Dr Bingo

The chief Nurses are

Nurse Wills

Nurse Wagga

Nurse Sambo

Nurse Coon and many others

K.C. Cudmore (Matron)

 

Nowra Public School converted into a temporary hospital for pneumonic influenza epidemic, 1919 (Illustrating hospitals of 1919, photograph from the collection of the Historic Houses Trust)

…..

 

We are pleased to send you this months Stuffed Notes.

There has been one case of influenza which was fatal. But we are glad to say no more cases have been proved influenza.

All the other patients all getting on very well, all but Caecer the Stuffed whos eye is still bad. Bruin has got Typhoid Fever very badly but we think he will not die.

All in the hospital send there love.

K.C. Cudmore

 

…..

 

The Hospital has had one death a little boy died of a injured Spinal Cord. The accindent accured through a motor driven by Mr Jackson of Henly Beach ran into a trap driven by Bellring and Caeser the Stuffed. Both were rendered unconious and taken to the Animal Hospital. Bellring is getting much better and soon will be going home.

All the other patients are getting better

No more cases of Enfluenza have accured.

All the Hospital sends their love.

KC Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

If you would like all the 1919 numbers of Stuffed Notes in a little book you can do so by writting or Telephoning 4506.

There has been one more case of Influenza. But he is recovering. There are 5 cases of Diphtheria but they are all getting better all but two who are dangirus.

Nurse Wells is going for a holiday so Nurse Wagga is taking her place.

All the patients are improving all but two Bellring and Possy the Stuffed.

The hospital sends their love.

KC Cudmore

(Matron)

 

Ward 11 Keswick Military Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia 1919 Photograph from the Australian War Memorial

…..

 

The are 8 cases of Influenza 2 deaths and 3 dangious cases all the rest are getting better.

The Mayor gave 10 pounds to the hospital on Saturday. The Govenor 5 pounds.

Bellring and Possy are much better and will leave the hospital on Friday. Nurse Wells has come home and will go on with her dutys as before. Dr Binks xrayed Bruin yesterday but found nothing broken only a bone bruised.

All the Hospital sends its love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

Five cases of Influenza have accured 1 death and 2 dangirus the other two a getting better the outbreak of Influenza is very bad at present.

One of the convalescent patients, Poggy Quack Quack, was out for a walk with one of the nurses, saw his mother across the street and run to meet her when he was in the middle of the street a motor run over him.

He was taken to the Hospital were he died. It was not the nurses fault for she tried to catch him.

All the Hospital sends thier love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

There are 10 cases of Influenza 3 deaths and 5 dangrous cases. Nurse Wagga is ill with Influenza so Nurse Sambo is taking her place. Dr Bingo x-rayed Little Teddy, he has a broken back. He is slowly getting better. Nurse Wagga is is not so very dangious but she is fairly bad.

The Hospital has given 20 pounds for the Navy.

All the Hospital sends thier love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

Influenza

Cases = 12

Deaths = 4

Dangious = 3

Mild = 5

Nurse Wagga is quite well now and has gone away for a Holiday a Henly Beach.

We are not removing the Influenza cases to the Isolation Hospital at the Exhibition. As we heard the conditions are not very good.

All the Hospital sends thier love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

Septeber

On Monday Bellring was in a tran when it clided with another the two motormen were killed as well as 10 passengers & many injured. The rams caught alight which made the tragedy more awful. Bellring was taken to the Hospital where he is in critical condition between Life and Death. Some times he seems better sometimes worse. every attention is being had to him that can be done & we still have hope of his recovery.

There a five cases of Influenza but they are all recovering.

Nurse Coon has gone for a holiday so Nurse Wells is taking her place.

All the patients send their love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

Crowd gathers to observe the damage following a collision between a motor bus and an electric tram near Hurtle Square, Adelaide, on 13 March 1915. Both vehicles burst into flames and Walter Simmons, aged 5, received fatal burns. Photograph from State Library of South Australia.

…..

We are glad to say Bellring has received but is not well enough to be discharged.

Little Teddy is back is much better and will go home on Friday.

Nurse Coon is home from her holiday.

There were no deaths lately and most of the dangerous cases are getting better.

Possy has to have his fingers amputated as he slammed it very badly in a door.

All the Patients send their love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

…..

No more cases of Influenza have accrued. Dr San x-rayed Bellring nothing serious was the matter only a broken arm.

A fete will be held on the 11th Nov at he hospital ground there will be Brand Pies, sweet stalls, work stalls Hoop-la and other stalls

There are 5 cases of measles but none of them are dingoes.

All the Patients are getting much better.

All the Hospital sends their love.

K.C. Cudmore

…..

This is the last number of Stuffed Notes this year, it will soon be Christmas.

We want to give a little present to the children that are in the Hospital at Christmas. we may have a Christmas tree with the presents hung on and wheel it round for the children to see and take the presents off and give them to the children.

All the Patients are a little better.

A happy Christmas to you.

All the patients & staff send their love.

K.C. Cudmore

Christmas tea Keswick Military Hospital 1919. Photograph from the Australian War Memorial

A Christmas party at Parliament House, Adelaide, for soldiers’ children. In the foreground is Mr Samuel ‘Sammy’ Lunn, M.B.E., a well-known worker for soldiers at the Front and, after the war, for returned soldiers and their families. c. 1919 Photograph from State Library of South Australia.

Hannah Fish aged 5 died in 1879

No title (1879, June 3). Avoca Mail (Vic. : 1863 – 1900; 1915 – 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202422612

On Friday 30 May 1879 a five-year-old girl called Hannah Fish died at Lamplough, a small gold-mining town near Avoca in central Victoria.

Her death was sudden and unexpected, and a coronial inquest was held the next day.

Hannah was the child of an unmarried daughter of William Fish, a miner, who deposed that the thumb of her left hand had become inflamed a couple of weeks previously, that her grandmother had bathed and poulticed it, that within a few days she was retching, and that he had given her four teaspoons of fluid magnesia (magnesium hydroxide in suspension, a laxative and antacid) to settle her stomach. He did not call a doctor or take her to see one: ‘I did not have any medical attendance for her, but would have brought her to the doctor yesterday afternoon had she lived’.

An Avoca doctor called William Selwyn Morris stated that he had seen the body. He believed that the cause of death was ‘inflammation of the absorbent vessels’: her lymphatic system had been overwhelmed by the infection.

A paragraph in the Avoca Mail on the following Tuesday reporting the inquest added the information that there appeared to be severe ‘gathering’ (accumulation of pus) on one of Hannah’s fingers. This rapidly extended to the arm, then to the chest.

Morris offered the opinion that the wound may have been caused by a venomous insect and that he had no reason to believe that ‘violence or [deliberate] injury’ had caused Hannah’s death.

Deposition by William Fish, grandfather of Hannah Fish from Inquest into the death of Hannah Fish held on 31 May 1879 at Avoca. Page 1

page 2 of grandfather’s deposition

page 1 of the deposition by Dr Morris

page 2 of the deposition by Dr Morris

Fluid Magnesia or Magnesium Hydroxide was first patented in 1818. In 1879 it was advertised in many newspapers including the Avoca Mail.

Advertising (1879, May 20). Avoca Mail (Vic. : 1863 – 1900; 1915 – 1918), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202422481

 

Without knowing more about the circumstances it is impossible to say whether and to what extent Fish and his wife were responsible for the little girl’s death. Two teaspoons twice of a mild laxative seems a culpably inadequate treatment for a spreading suppurating wound, which would most certainly have produced a high fever and great agony. Even if she had been attended by a doctor, it was decades before antibiotic drugs were available and in common use, so the result may have been the same.

The blame for poor Hannah’s untimely death, if we can speak of blame, must be divided somehow between an indifferent universe, a cruel and incompetent God and, perhaps, her callous and careless family.

If William Fish did not do enough to save his dying granddaughter, it is satisfying to learn that in 1893, fourteen years later, a miner called William Fish from Lamplough was fossicking for gold in an old working, and

“… while below in a stooping position the earth above him
gave way and forced his head towards his feet, breaking his back and several of his ribs.”

It took him a day to die.

Hannah Fish (1874 – 1879) was the daughter of Hannah Fish (1856-1891) and was the niece of Alfred Fish (1860-1932), who later married Rachel Young (1865-1918) and also the niece of Alfred’s brother Thomas Fish (1872-1949) who married Rachel’s sister Alice Young (1859-1935).

References

• Inquest from Public Record Office Victoria: VPRS 24/ P0  unit 399,  item 1879/202 Female
• Glossary of 19C medical terms at http://www.thornber.net/medicine/html/medgloss.html
• DISTRESSING FATAL ACCIDENT. (1893, April 14). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13904967

 

1892 journey on the Ballaarat

 

 

Portrait of Wentworth Cavenagh, Commissioner of Public Works of South Australia from 4 March 1872 to 22 July 1873 from the State Library of South Australia

Browsing the National Library of Australia’s ‘Trove’ digitised newspaper collection recently, I came across a shipping departure notice which gives a succinct family history of my Cavenagh and Mainwaring great great and great great great grandparents. The Cavenagh-Mainwaring family were about to sail for England on the Ballaarat.

The Ballaarat was a P & O ship of 4752 tons built in 1882, designed for service between the United Kingdom and Australia. The P&O history site remarks that “Her dining saloon was considered particularly fine, and patent iron beds replaced bunks for her first class passengers.”

Ballaarat – 1882 Greenock retrieved from http://www.findboatpics.com.au/sppo2.html

 

Latest News. (1892, April 27). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 – 1912), p. 2 Edition: SECOND EDITION. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204477375

Lots of information to follow up and facts to check.

Until I came across this information I did not know that James Gordon Cavenagh, my great great great grandfather, an army surgeon with the Royal Staff Corps, was at Waterloo. He is listed on page 20 in the list of officers as a surgeon in the Royal Staff Corps in John Booth’s 1816 book of The Battle of Waterloo. He is also listed in The Bloody Fields of Waterloo: Medical Support at Wellington’s Greatest Battle by Michael Crumplin published in 2013.

I also didn’t know very much about his son, my great great grandfather, Wentworth Cavenagh. It appears that he was educated at Ferns Diocesan School in Wexford, Ireland. When he was 18 years old he went to Canada, Ceylon, and Calcutta and from there to the Bendigo diggings.

R is for No. 1 Australian General Hospital at Rouen

The 1st Australian General Hospital in Rouen dealt with general battle casualties. It was formed in Queensland in August 1914, and was first at Heliopolis, Egypt. After the armistice until 1919 the hospital was at Sutton Veny, England.

Rouen, France. 9 July 1917. Her Majesty Queen Mary visiting No. 1 Australian General Hospital (1AGH). HM is accompanied through a guard of honour of nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) by the hospital’s commanding officer, Colonel Trent Champion de Crespigny DSO. Temporary wards and tents are on both sides of the path and patients in hospital uniform look on. Australian War Memorial photograph id K00019

In September 1915 Trent de Crespigny (1882 – 1952) was appointed second in command of the 3rd General Hospital on Lemnos.  I have written previously about his appointment to the Australian Army Medical Corps in April 1915 (at the same time as my other great grandfather Arthur Murray Cudmore) and I have also written about the 3rd AGH on Lemnos.

On 27 January 1916 Trent de Crespigny disembarked at Alexandria. On 20 February 1916 he was appointed to command the 1st Australian General Hospital at Heliopolis and he transferred from the 3rd AGH on 6 March. The hospital sailed for Marseilles on 6 April 1916 from Alexandria.

On 24 March 1916 Alice Ross King received her orders to sail to France. She and her fellow nurses from No. 1 Australian General Hospital waited on the pier at Alexandria, weighed down with the booty from a final shopping spree. One nurse had a canary in a cage. A captain was told to make sure all the nurses were on board the hospital ship Braemar Castle.‘Not knowing the AANS he told us to form a double row to “number off”,’ Alice recounted.‘He wanted 120. Each time he got a different number. He was terribly worried. Finally our big [commanding officer] Col De Crespigny came down the gangway to see what was the matter. In his tired voice he called out, “Sisters! Form a fairly straight line. Left turn! Get on board.” “Oh! Sir,” said Matron, “they are not all here.” “Then they’ll be left behind,” said our CO. Our first hard lesson! We had always been fussed over [and] spoilt before,’ Alice wrote, with a shade of overstatement.  Rees, Peter. The Other Anzacs: Nurses at War 1914-1918. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2008. 17 Sept. 2008. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://ir.nmu.org.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/121897/b23aa39c4e3b73956c4935b8b0677d3f.pdf>

I never knew my great grandfather, Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny. My father has memories of him but otherwise I rely on other people’s memoirs. The idea of directing people to get on with it and telling them how to do so, form a fairly straight line, and turn left and get on board, brings him to life for me.

The War Diary for 1st AGH: War diaries/AWM4/Class 26/Sub class 65/AWM4 26/65/1 – April 1916

The Hospital Ship Salta transported the 1st Australian General Hospital which comprised twenty medical officers, including Trent de Crespigny, three chaplains, a dental officer, a quartermaster, 115 nursing staff including the matron, two masseuses. 187 other ranks including three dental details, four motor drivers, and one masseur. There was a car, an ambulance, a lorry and two motorcycles. The personnel and equipment amounted to 850 tons according to the war Diary. That excluded the tents. It was a 750 bed hospital capable of expanding to 1,000 beds. It included an x-ray department, dental department and pathological department.

The hospital was established in Rouen having travelled by train and arriving 12 April 1916.  The nurses were assigned to duties elsewhere and on 14 April there were 20 medical officers, 3 chaplains, 1 quartermaster, 1 dental officer and 185 other ranks, several other ranks had themselves been admitted to hospital. The unloading of the train was completed on 15 April. 16 bell tents were erected as officers’ quarters. 48 nurses including the matron returned to the unit for duty on 20 April.

During the next week four hospital marquees, 28 bell tents and 1 store tent were erected. Work was done on the flooring of the hospital marquees. In the last week of April 2 additional hospital marquees, 3 store tents and 3 Canadian tents were erected. The flooring was still in progress. The hospital opened ready to receive patients on 29 April 1916. As at midnight on the 30th there were 11 patients and the hospital had a capacity for 200 patients. There were 189 vacant beds.

The tent wards at the 1st Australian General Hospital at Rouen. 23 September 1918, 2 1/2 years after being erected. Australian War Memorial photograph id E03422

During the first weeks of May the beds filled rapidly and additional beds were made available within the hospital. During the month there were 751 admissions. Most patients transferred elsewhere, 362 were evacuated to England. There were 5 deaths. The daily average number of occupied beds was 185.5. Patients stayed for an average 7.56 days. At the end of the month there were 249 patients and 151 vacant beds.

At the end of 1916 Trent de Crespigny was ill. In October he was granted 3 weeks sick leave in England. In December he was again ill and in January 1917 he was admitted to hospital with gall bladder problems, cholecystitis. He spent nearly two months in hospital in England. He returned to command the 1st AGH in the beginning of March 1917.

On 3 June 1917 Trent de Crespigny was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for distinguished service in the field.

In August 1917 Trent de Crespigny was again admitted to hospital with a fever of unknown origin (PUO). Although he rejoined the hospital in August, several months later in November 1917 he sailed for Australia.  Trent de Crespigny relinquished command of the hospital on 12 October 1917. The reason for his early return was given as “family reasons”.

On the day he left the hospital, 12 October 1917, the number of patients in the hospital was  1,073. During September 1917 there were 1933 admissions. Most patients transferred elsewhere, 1097 were evacuated to England. There were 17 deaths. The daily average beds occupied was 465. Patients stayed for an average 6 days. 517 operations were performed during the month. At the end of the month there were 613 patients of whom 123 were sick and 490 wounded.

Trent de Crespigny returned to Europe later in the war.

One of the things that puzzles me about Trent de Crespigny’s period of service in Europe is that there are several photographs in the Australian War Memorial collection where he is pictured with General Birdwood and described as an Aide de Camp. Perhaps they are wrongly captioned. I have not been able to understand why a doctor in charge of a hospital would be given this role. There is no information in his dossier explaining why. In one of the photographs,dated March 1917, he is described as Captain Trent de Crespigny. Another photograph is dated May 1918. Trent de Crespigny was not then in Europe. Throughout his time in Europe Trent de Crespigny was either Lieutenant Colonel or Colonel. I think the Aide de Camp is misidentified in some way. To my knowledge there is no other member of the de Crespigny family of that generation with the first name Trent.  There were only four men surnamed Champion de Crespigny who served with the Australian Imperial Force:

• Constantine Trent, 
• his older brother Philip who did not enlist until November 1917, 
• his half-brother Hugh who was briefly with the AIF and then joined the Royal Flying Corps
• his half-brother Frank who enlisted as a doctor in November 1917.

Sources

•  War Diary No. 1 Australian General Hospital https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/awm4/26/65/
• National Archives of Australia: B2455 ( First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920), Champion De Crespigny Constantine Trent : SERN COL : POB Queenscliffe VIC : POE SA : NOK W Champion De Crespigny Beatrice  http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=3230201
• Australian WW1 hospitals http://www.anzacday.org.au/digging/hospitals.html
• No. 1 Australian General Hospital http://throughtheselines.com.au/research/1-AGH

Related posts

• No 3 AGH (Australian General Hospital) Lemnos Christmas Day
• Arthur Murray Cudmore World War I service
• M is for muddle, a follow up on the question of Trent de Crespigny ADC to Birdwood

I is for insulin

14 Days To Live—He Dies 30 Years Later. (1954, March 31). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 – 1954), p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47565237

Until the early 1920s there was no generally effective treatment for diabetes. It was usually fatal. An Adelaide man named Clifford Cornish is said to have been the first patient in Australia whose life was saved by the use of insulin. He was treated by my great grandfather Trent de Crespigny (1882-1952).

Insulin and its application in treating diabetes in humans was pioneered in Toronto, Canada in 1921 – 22 by Frederick Banting. Research into the treatment of diabetes had been progressing in Germany and in Europe  in 1914 but was interrupted by the start of the Great War.  Professor T. Brailsford Robertson, based in Adelaide, had worked in Canada and was aware of the research by his friends and former colleagues in Toronto. He and a colleague made a small experimental supply of insulin from pigs in the Adelaide abattoirs and this was used to treat Mr Cornish.

Additional Sources

• Strakosch C. The discovery of insulin. In University Endocrine Department. Greenslopes Private Hospital: Brisbane, 2004; 20. Retrieved from http://www.historicgreenslopes.com/documents/Booklet_The%20Discovery%20of%20Insulin%2006.pdf