William Crowther (Australian politician)
Dr William Crowther | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 14th Premier of Tasmania | |
| In office 20 December 1878 – 29 October 1879 | |
| Preceded by | William Giblin |
| Succeeded by | William Giblin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Lodewyk Crowther 15 April 1817 Haarlem, Netherlands |
| Died | 12 April 1885 (aged 67) Hobart, Tasmania, Australia |
| Spouse | Sarah Victoria Marie Louise Muller |
| Profession | Surgeon |
William Lodewyk Crowther FRCS (15 April 1817 − 12 April 1885) was an Tasmanian politician, who was Premier of Tasmania from 20 December 1878 to 29 October 1879.
His careers in medicine, politics, and business were overshadowed by his role in the mutilation of the body of William Lanne, the last full-blooded male Aboriginal Tasmanian.
Early life
Crowther was born in Haarlem, Netherlands, as the elder child of Dr. William Crowther[1] who was later a long-time resident surgeon of Hobart.[2] The Crowthers moved to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in 1824.[citation needed]
Crowther was educated at a private school at Richard B. Claiborne's Grammar School in Longford, Tasmania and then went to St Thomas' Hospital, England to study medicine. In 1842 he returned to Tasmania and practised at Hobart.[citation needed]
Business interests
Crowther engaged in various commercial enterprises in Tasmania. He was a shipowner, had sawmills on the Huon River and shipped lumber from Tasmania to other Australian colonies and New Zealand. He sent ships to collect guano from islands in the Coral Sea and engaged in sealing and pelagic whaling from Hobart.[3]
Political career
Crowther was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly in October 1866, but resigned his seat in December 1866. On 22 March 1869, he was elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Council as a representative of Hobart and held this seat until his death. He was a constant attendant and an able speaker. In July 1876 he joined the Thomas Reibey cabinet as a minister without portfolio, and on 20 December 1878 became premier. The state of the political parties at that time made it practically impossible to do anything constructive. Crowther resigned on 29 October 1879.[2]
Removal of Indigenous remains
Crowther is noted for mutilating the remains of William Lanne, a Tasmanian Aboriginal man, in 1869. He removed Lanne's skull and sent it to the Royal College of Surgeons in London.[4][5] He was suspended from his role as honorary medical officer at the Hobart General Hospital over charges arising from this mutilation. An inquiry showed that two mutilations had taken place, the first at the Colonial Hospital, the other at the cemetery the night of the burial. Drs Crowther and G. Stokell, resident medical officer at the hospital, were suspected of the first, the Royal Society of Tasmania of the second. A petition with 48 pages of closely-packed signatures was sent to Governor (Sir) Charles Du Cane seeking annulment of Crowther's suspension, without success.[1]
Crowther threatened violence when challenged about his actions by then Premier Alfred Kennerley in the Tasmanian Parliament in August 1873:[6]
A fracas occurred outside the Council chamber, Hobart Town, a few nights ago. Mr. Crowther, member for Hobart Town, threatened his colleague, Mr. Kennerley, with personal violence, because of the latter's allusion to Mr. Crowther's alleged abstraction of the last aboriginal's head. Mr. Kennerley called the attention of the House to the circumstance, and Mr. Crowther was reprimanded.
— Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 15 August 1873
Crowther is believed to have exhumed the remains of other Aboriginal Tasmanians, notably a girl named Mathinna.[7]
Death and legacy
Crowther died in Hobart on 12 April 1885,[1] three days before his 68th birthday. He was survived by his wife Victoria Marie Louise, daughter of General Muller, and their eight children.[citation needed] One of his sons, Edward Crowther, was a member of the Tasmanian parliament from 1878 to 1912.[1]
In 1935 W. L. Crowther's face mask joined those of other eminent Australians in the gallery of the Institute of Anatomy in Canberra.[1]
The W. L. Crowther Library was named in his memory, and presented to the State Library of Tasmania by his grandson Sir William Crowther (1887–1981), son of Edward, in 1964.[8][4]
Despite a long life involving many other endeavours and achievements in his adopted home and abroad, according to historian Helen Patricia MacDonald, referring to the theft of Lanne's remains, "the events of 1869 came to define William Crowther's place in Tasmanian history".[9]
Statue
A bronze statue of Crowther was erected in Franklin Square, Hobart, on 9 January 1889, funded by public subscription.[1][10] The inscription reads:[11][12]
Erected by a grateful public, and sincere personal friends
To perpetuate the memory of long and zealous political and professional services rendered in this Colony by William Lodewyck Crowther F.R.C.S. England
Sometime Premier of Tasmania
Born 15th April, 1817
Died 12th April, 1885
On 15 August 2022 the Hobart City Council voted 7 to 4 in favour of removing Crowther's statue from public display in Franklin Square. Lord Mayor, Anna Reynolds, said "[This] does not change history. The records, the books, the articles, the stories all remain unchanged, [...] We don’t want to celebrate a time in our history when scientists and doctors wanted to prove theories of European superiority (and) wanted to rank people by their race. It was an appalling tradition".[10]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Crowther, William Edward Lodewyk Hamilton (1969). Crowther, William Lodewyk (1817–1885). MUP. pp. 501–503. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 3, (Melbourne University Press), 1969... Published online 2006.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ a b Percival Serle (1949). "Crowther, William Lodewyk". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
- ^ James Robinson (edited by Michael Nash) Captain Robinson; the reminiscences of a Tasmanian Master Mariner; James William Robinson, 1824–1906, Hobart, 2009, pp. 1–2, 58–9 & 94–5.
- ^ a b "Crowther, Sir William Edward Lodewyk Hamilton (1887–1981)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
- ^ Richard J. Chacon; David H. Dye (2007). The taking and displaying of human body parts as trophies by Amerindians. Springer. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-387-48300-9.
- ^ "Tasmania". Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle. Nelson, New Zealand. 15 August 1873. p. 3.
A fracas occurred outside the Council chamber, Hobart Town, a few nights ago. Mr. Crowther, member for Hobart Town, threatened his colleague, Mr. Kennerley, with personal violence, because of the latter's allusion to Mr. Crowther's alleged abstraction of the last aboriginal's head. Mr. Kennerley called the attention of the House to the circumstance, and Mr. Crowther was reprimanded.
- ^ Perkins, Rachel, ed. (2010). First Australians. Langton, Marcia. Miegunyah Press. pp. 68–70. ISBN 978-0522857269.
- ^ "The W L Crowther Collection". Libraries Tasmania. 16 August 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
- ^ MacDonald, Helen Patricia (2006). Human Remains: Dissection and Its Histories. Yale University Press. p. 177. ISBN 9780300116991.
- ^ a b "'A small step to reconciliation': Hobart council to remove statue of William Crowther who stole Aboriginal skull from morgue". The Guardian. 15 August 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
- ^ "William Lodewyk Crowther". Monument Australia. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
- ^ "CROWTHER MEMORIAL STATUE". Launceston Examiner. Vol. XLIX, , no. 9. Tasmania, Australia. 10 January 1889. p. 2. Retrieved 16 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) PDF
External links
- "Crowther, William". Members of the Parliament of Tasmania. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
- 1817 births
- 1885 deaths
- Premiers of Tasmania
- Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly
- Members of the Tasmanian Legislative Council
- Australian surgeons
- Politicians from Haarlem
- Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons
- 19th-century Australian politicians
- Australian people in whaling
- Australian ship owners
- Sealers
- 19th-century Australian businesspeople