Person

Douglass, Henry Grattan (1790 - 1865)

Born
1790
Dublin, Ireland
Died
1 December 1865
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Medical administrator, Medical practitioner and Member of Parliament

Summary

Henry Douglass was a medical practitioner who, on arrival in New South Wales in 1821, was appointed Superintendent of the Colonial Hospital and the Female Factory, both in Parramatta. He was also appointed Magistrate, but after disputes with his fellow members of the bench and various political difficulties, he returned to the United Kingdom in 1828, his land grants being rescinded. During the next 20 years he spent much time in France as superintendent of the seaman's hospital in Le Havre. After his return to Sydney in 1848, Douglass was appointed Honorary Physician at the Sydney Hospital, as such being one of the first teachers of clinical medicine in Australia. He resigned as Director of the Hospital when appointed to the Legislative Council in 1856. As a Member of Parliament, first as an appointed and then an elected Member, he advocated abolition of capital punishment, compulsory vaccination against smallpox, and regulation of qualifications for medical practitioners. Douglass was an active member of the scientific community in New South Wales. A founding member of the Philosophical Society of Australasia, the first scientific organisation established in the colony, and the Agricultural Society of New South Wales, he held office in several later societies. He was also a strong advocate for the establishment of the University of Sydney, serving on the Senate from 1856 to 1865.

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Details

Educated Trinity College Dublin (MD); Licentiate, Kings and Queens College of Physicians, Ireland. Assistant surgeon in the British Army.

Chronology

1812
Career event - Appointed Medical Superintendent, Fever Hospital and Infirmary, Cahir, Tipperary, Ireland
1815 - ?
Education - Member, Royal College of Surgeons, United Kingdom
1820 - ?
Career position - Member, Royal Irish Academy
1821
Life event - Arrived in Sydney
1821
Career event - Established private practice, Parramatta, New South Wales
1821
Career event - Appointed Superintendent, Female Factory, Parramatta
1821 - 1823
Career position - Superintendent, Colonial Hospital, Parramatta, New South Wales
1821 - 1828
Career position - Magistrate
June 1821 - 1822
Career position - Founding Member, Philosophical Society of Australasia
1822
Career position - Member, Agricultural Society of New South Wales
May 1828
Life event - Left Sydney
1848 -
Career position - Member, Agricultural Society of New South Wales
October 1848
Life event - Returned to Sydney (as surgeon superintendent of the emigrant ship Earl Grey)
1850 - 1855
Career position - Secretary, Australian Philosophical Society
1851 - 1856
Career position - Member (elected) for Counties of Northumberland and Hunter, Legislative Council, Parliament of New South Wales
1856 - 1861
Career position - Member (appointed), Legislative Council, Parliament of New South Wales
1856 - 1865
Career position - Member, Philosophical Society of New South Wales
1856 - 1865
Career position - Member of the Senate, University of Sydney
1857 - 1858
Career position - Secretary, Philosophical Society of New South Wales
1858 - 1859
Career position - Member of Council, Philosophical Society of New South Wales

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Book Sections

Journal Articles

  • Brown, Keith Macarthur, 'Doctor Douglass and medical sociology', Medical journal of Australia, 1 (21) (1943). Details
  • Noad, K. B., 'Henry Grattan Douglass', Bulletin of the Post-Graduate Committee in Medicine, University of Sydney (1962), 125-147. Details
  • Plomley, N. J. B., 'Some notes on the life of Doctor Henry Grattan Douglass', Medical journal of Australia, 1 (22) (1961), 801-7, https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1961.tb69186.x. Details

Resources

See also

  • Cambage, R.H., 'Biographical Sketches of Some of the Members of the Philosophical Society of Australasia', Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, lv (1921), xxxiii-xlii. Details
  • Day, A. A. and Day, J. A. F., 'A biographical register of Members of the Australian Philosophical Society (1850 -55) and the Philosophical Society of New South Wales (1856-66): part I', Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 117 (1984), 119-27. Details

Rosanne Walker and Helen Cohn

Created: 30 June 1997, Last modified: 25 March 2025

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