Edit filter log

'{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific-prefix = Dr | name = William Crowther | honorific-suffix = [[Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons|FRCS]] | image = William Crowther.jpg | imagesize = | smallimage = | caption = | order = 14th | office = Premier of Tasmania | term_start = 20 December 1878 | term_end = 29 October 1879 | deputy = | governor = | predecessor = [[William Giblin]] | successor = [[William Giblin]] | constituency = | majority = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1817|04|15}} | birth_place = [[Haarlem]], [[Netherlands]] | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1885|04|12|1817|04|15}} | death_place = [[Hobart]], [[Tasmania]], [[Australia]] | restingplace = | restingplacecoordinates = | birthname = William Lodewyk Crowther | nationality = | party = | otherparty = <!--For additional political affiliations --> | spouse = Sarah Victoria Marie Louise Muller | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | profession = [[Surgeon]] | religion = | footnotes = }} '''William Lodewyk Crowther''' [[Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons|FRCS]] (15 April 1817 – 12 April 1885) was an [[Australian]] 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 male [[Aboriginal Tasmanian]].<ref name=ADB/> ==Early life== Crowther was born in [[Haarlem]], [[Netherlands]], elder child of Dr. William Crowther<ref name=ADB>{{cite book |url=http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030469b.htm |title=Crowther, William Lodewyk (1817–1885) |access-date=1 September 2007 |first=William Edward Lodewyk Hamilton |last=Crowther |work=[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]], Volume 3 |publisher=[[Melbourne University Press|MUP]] |year=1969 |pages=501–503}}</ref> who was later a long-time resident surgeon of [[Hobart]].<ref name=DAB>{{cite web |url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500721h/0-dict-biogCl-Cu.html#crowther1 |title=Crowther, William Lodewyk |access-date=1 September 2007 |author=Percival Serle |author-link=Percival Serle |work=[[Dictionary of Australian Biography]] |publisher=Angus & Robertson |year=1949}}</ref> The Crowthers moved to [[Van Diemen's Land]] (now [[Tasmania]]) in 1824. 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. ==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.<ref>James Robinson (edited by Michael Nash) ''Captain Robinson; the reminiscences of a Tasmanian Master Mariner; James William Robinson, 1824–1906'', Hobart, 2009, pp.&nbsp;1–2, 58–9 & 94–5.</ref> ==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.<ref name=DAB/> ==Legacy== Crowther died in Hobart on 12 April 1885, 3 days before his 68th birthday. He was survived by his wife Victoria Marie Louise, daughter of General Muller, and their eight children. One of his sons, Dr [[Edward Crowther (politician)|Edward Crowther]], was a member of the Tasmanian parliament from 1878 to 1912. A statue of W. L. Crowther is erected in [[Franklin Square (Hobart)|Franklin Square]], [[Hobart]]. The inscription reads: [[File:William Crowther statue.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Statue of Crowther in [[Franklin Square (Hobart)|Franklin Square]], [[Hobart]].]] {{blockquote|Erected<br /> By a grateful public,<br /> And sincere personal friends,<br /> To perpetuate the memory of long and<br /> Zealous political and professional service<br /> In this colony<br /> By<br /> William Lodewyk Crowther<br /> F. R. S. C. England}} 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). ===William Lanne=== Crowther is noted for mutilating the remains of [[William Lanne]], a [[Aboriginal Tasmanians|Tasmanian Aboriginal man]], in 1869. He removed Lanne's skull and sent it to the [[Royal College of Surgeons of England|Royal College of Surgeons]] in London.<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/crowther-sir-william-edward-lodewyk-hamilton-12374 | title=Australian Dictionary of Biography | chapter=Crowther, Sir William Edward Lodewyk Hamilton (1887–1981) | publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University }}</ref><ref name="ChaconDye2007">{{cite book|author1=Richard J. Chacon|author2=David H. Dye|title=The taking and displaying of human body parts as trophies by Amerindians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REaoEPOLBF0C&pg=PA26|year=2007|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-387-48300-9|pages=26}}</ref> 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 forty-eight pages of closely packed signatures was sent to Governor (Sir) Charles Du Cane seeking annulment of Crowther's suspension, without success.<ref name=ADB/> The act remained controversial in later years:<ref>{{cite news |date=1873-08-15|title=Tasmania |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NENZC18730815.1.3 |newspaper=[[The Nelson Examiner|Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle]] |location=[[Nelson, New Zealand]] |page=3|quote=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.}}</ref>{{blockquote|A fracas occurred outside the Council chamber, [[Hobart|Hobart Town]], a few nights ago. Mr. Crowther, member for Hobart Town, threatened his colleague, [[Alfred Kennerley|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.|sign=''[[The Nelson Examiner|Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle]]'', 15 August 1873}} Despite a long life involving many other endeavours and achievements in his adopted home and abroad, according to historian Helen Patricia MacDonald "the events of 1869 came to define William Crowther's place in Tasmanian history."<ref>{{cite book|first=Helen Patricia|last=MacDonald|title=Human Remains: Dissection and Its Histories|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REaoEPOLBF0C&pg=PA33|year=2006|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300116991|page=177}}</ref> ===Other indigenous remains=== Crowther is believed to have exhumed the remains of other Aboriginal Tasmanians, notably a girl named [[Mathinna (Tasmanian)|Mathinna]].<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first=Rachel |editor1-last=Perkins |others=Langton, Marcia |title=First Australians |year=2010 |publisher=Miegunyah Press |isbn= 978-0522857269 |pages=68–70}}</ref> ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== {{Wikisource|1=Grey River Argus/1869/04/06/Atrocious Outrage on the Last Native Tasmanian|2="Atrocious Outrage on the Last Native Tasmanian"}} *{{cite Tas Parliament |id=crowtherw93 |title=Crowther, William |access-date=24 July 2022}} {{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before=[[William Giblin]] | title=[[Premier of Tasmania]] | years=1878–1879| after=[[William Giblin]] }} {{s-par|au-tas-lc}} {{s-bef|before=[[Philip Fysh]]}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for [[Electoral division of Hobart|Hobart]]|years=1869–1885|alongside=[[James Agnew|Agnew]]/[[Thomas Smart (Tasmanian politician)|Smart]], [[James Milne Wilson|Wilson]]/[[Alexander McGregor (Australian politician)|McGregor]]}} {{s-aft|after=[[William Crosby (Australian politician)|William Crosby]]}} {{s-end}} {{TasmaniaPremiers}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Crowther, William Lodewyk}} [[Category:1817 births]] [[Category:1885 deaths]] [[Category:Premiers of Tasmania]] [[Category:Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly]] [[Category:Members of the Tasmanian Legislative Council]] [[Category:Australian surgeons]] [[Category:Politicians from Haarlem]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons]] [[Category:19th-century Australian politicians]] [[Category:Australian people in whaling]] [[Category:Australian ship owners]] [[Category:Sealers]] [[Category:19th-century Australian businesspeople]]'