Time Travellers in Essendon, Flemington and the Keilor Plains

Biographies

 

John Rae Menzies Thomson

 

A Name on a Certificate

 

By Marilyn Kenny

 

During the period 1889-1908 Essendon benefited from the medical services of a well-qualified and forward thinking medical practitioner.  Although in his day well recognized, the main reminder now of his services is the appearance of his name on birth registrations and other official documents.  

 

John Thomson was born in Richmond in 6 October 1856. His father James, b 1815, was an early colonist having arrived (probably) in 1841 as a Bounty Immigrant to Port Phillip.  In 1855 James married fellow Scot Martha Menzies, b 1823.  At that stage he was a teacher at the Richmond Presbyterian School.  Martha had only been in the colony since June 1853 having arrived with her brother Dr Peter Rae Menzies, formerly Medical Officer of the City Parish of Glasgow.  Dr Menzies, aged only 28 years, had died in January 1855 and nine months later Martha and James married.  James then took orders in the Church of England and in 1859 became a curate at St James Cathedral.  

 

In 1861 he was appointed to the chaplaincy of the Melbourne Hospitals and the Benevolent Asylum, a position he held for the next 28 years.  The couple had four daughters in the period 1859-1867 but only one Margaret Agnes, b 1860, survived.  In his obituary James was described as A quiet little figure who did not play a prominent part in life.  The records however show Rev Thomson being involved in several controversies being criticized by The Vagabond in 1877 for not attending dying hospital patients and in 1872 both he and his daughter were called as witnesses in a trial of an Anglican minister accused of cruelty to a child.

 

John Rae Menzies Thomson first attended Melbourne Grammar in 1869. In 1870 he became a boarder at the Church of England Grammar School, Geelong.  In later life Thomson was an active member of the Old Boys Association of both schools.  Thomson matriculated in 1871 and in 1872 was Dux of the school.  His subjects were Greek, Latin, Euclid, Arithmetic, Algebra and English.   

 

Martha treasured her brother Peter’s medical certificates and papers.  His uncle’s example perhaps influenced young John to take up his profession.  He undertook medicine at the University of Melbourne, then the only such course in Australia.  He was one of about 13 students to undertake the five years of study.  He took Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Botany, Materia Medica, Anatomy, Zoology and Surgical Anatomy.  Thomson again was a high achiever, gaining Exhibitions in 1874 1876, 1877 and 1878.  He graduated in 1878 and took up an appointment at Bendigo Hospital, winning the scholarship and gaining his surgical qualifications in 1879.

 

Melbourne Medical School University of Melbourne. Archives Accession no: MHM00460

Taken in the courtyard of the Old Medical Building, c1880 with the students wearing academic

robes and mortar boards, and some are supporting human skeletons and skulls;

J R M Thompson is identified as seated in the middle of the front row.

 

With high academic attainments and glowing references which described him as universally popular, with kindly disposition, having a gentlemanly demeanor, being attentive to his patients and most ardent in his profession, he gained a post at the Melbourne Hospital. Dr J R M Thomson then became one of about 450 medical doctors in the colony, only about 10% of whom were locally trained.  Although the Melbourne course was longer than British or European training it offered primarily book learning and insufficient clinical work.  It was common therefore to study overseas particularly in Scotland.  However as far as is known Thomson never travelled to the UK or Europe.  Medical practitioners at this stage were not held in high regard as they later were.  The profession was on the verge of becoming scientific but was not yet so and there were substantial disagreements about the causes of disease and methods of treatment.  There was also fierce competition from chemists, alternative practitioners and immigrant doctors who, having failed to establish themselves in the UK, sought security in the colonies.  By 1880 Thomson was practicing in Belfast /Port Fairy where he also was Medical Officer for the Shire.

 

In March 1881 he married Georgianna Margaret Suter, daughter of Andrew Vernon Suter, pastoralist of Yambuk Station.  Suter had arrived in the colony in 1845 via India and Scotland.  Georgie, had been born at the station in 1859, one of the large family borne 1855-1875 by Charlotte Fisher Suter.  Later that year the Thomsons were in Western Australia where John took up an appointment as Medical Officer in the York District about 100 miles east of Perth.  He also threw himself into social and public life.  He was a Justice of the Peace, Magistrate, Churchwarden, Master Freemason, a militia officer in the York Volunteer Rifles, Secretary of various societies and promoter of good causes.  He sang at concerts and got up amateur theatricals, instructed local school children in elementary anatomy, physiology and first aid and attended to public and personal health problems.  He kept in touch with his profession attending intercolonial medical  conferences and maintained his friendships with peers such as Dr William John Springthrope. In December 1888 private affairs compelled the couple to return to Melbourne.  Georgie went ahead   and in January 1889 the entire contents of the house in York was publicly auctioned.   The listing took up two full columns of the local York paper.  As well as chairs, beds, blankets and curtains, piano, preserves and saddles there were numerous Japanese fans and ornaments and Zulu pictures.

 

In February a public entertainment was held to farewell Dr Thomson where he was presented with an address and a purse of sovereigns.  He was assured of the high esteem in which he was held by all, and the deep regret felt at his departure from the colony.  Thomson was identified with everything which could possibly tend to the social and moral welfare of the people, a man in whom people could rely with the greatest confidence; a skillful professional man in the pursuit of the many and arduous undertakings peculiar to his profession; affable, free, and noble in all his dealings.  

 

In his long and gratifying response Thomson assured the audience that whatever good I have done I have always looked upon it as my duty to perform, and for that reason I can hardly understand why you should have taken such notice of my efforts. The whole of the audience were then invited to the Mechanics Hall where champagne was served at the instance of Dr.  Thomson.  The doctor was triumphantly carried on several gentlemen’s shoulders, the crowd vociferously cheering.  One of his last acts was to visit the local Hospital where he invited all the inmates to partake of a little wine.  The patients were tearful and grateful.  The following month in Melbourne John was presented with a gold watch and pencil case, subscribed for by the ladies of York.

 

The compelling reasons for the departure probably were connected with family.  James Thomson was superannuated in the October 1889 and died in March 1890 leaving an estate of about £750 to his wife.  John’s sister, Margaret, had signed the matriculation roll in 1884 and married later that year.  Her husband, John Tait b 1843, was an accountant with the London Chartered Bank and son of the  Rev John Tait, a pioneer Presbyterian minister.  The birth of her  two sons in 1888 and 1890 and her residency in Geelong  probably precluded her directly  assisting her parents.  On the 20 June 1889 an advertisement in the Essendon Gazette announced that Dr J R Menzies Thomson, formerly Resident Medical Officer at the Melbourne Hospital had commenced practice at the Presbyterian Manse in Mt Alexander Road.  By 1890 the practice had moved to Rose St, Essendon, second in from the corner with Buckley.  In 1891 after Martha Thomson came to reside with the couple they moved to 2 Napier St, west side.  By 1900 they were living in St Ronan’s Mount Alexander Road next to St John’s.

 

MMBW Map showing the location of St Ronan’s between St Johns and the Royal Hotel.

Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works detail plan.  1678, Town of Essendon (cartographic material).  

Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works index map 11E (Melbourne): MMBW 1906

 

It was not a good time to be re-establishing oneself in a profession.  The colony was in the early days of the Great Depression that would grip it for the next six years.  The population was being depleted in both numbers and resources.  There was an oversupply of medical men and fierce competition for fee paying patients.  When Thomson had graduated there was a metropolitan ratio of one doctor to every 1410 Victorians.  By 1891 it was one to every 1184. Thomson possibly chose this district, Essendon, as there were only six doctors here in 1891 as opposed to the South Eastern suburbs e. g.  thirty-seven in Prahran and twenty in South Melbourne.  This was a ratio of one for every 2300 Essendonians.  This did not necessarily mean wealth as the number of individuals who could afford the 10/6 consultation fee would have been fewer and it was known the many doctors carried large bad debt ledgers.  Still, a doctor could expect an income of around £500 per annum with which to support home, family and practice expenses such as the keeping of a horse and carriage.

 

Thomson’s income was supplemented by being appointed in July 1890 as Medical Officer to the Shire of Broadmeadows, one boundary of which was then the northern side of Woodland Street.  The Shire was largely rural with a small population, but the position was no sinecure. Its remote location and agricultural character involved the Shire in two primary controversies of the day.  These were the disposal of night soil and the hygiene of the numerous dairies that supplied Melbourne with milk.  Andrew Lemon’s history of Broadmeadows details how Dr Thomson was involved in the issues being called on by the Shire Council to investigate practices that were being condemned by the Central Board of Health.  Lemon describes Thomson as an independent thinker whose fairmindnesses eventually led Council and local farmers towards a more progressive attitude towards hygiene and public health.

 

Dr Menzies Thomson also became Medical Officer or Lodge Doctor to local Friendly Societies one being the St Monica’s Branch of the Hibernian Australian Catholic Benefit Society.  Such mutual benefit societies made arrangements with local private doctors to provide medical services to their members in return for an annual subscription.  It was often a fraught relationship particularly regarding who and what was covered and the quality and method of the service.  Up to about 1890 the doctor received about 16/- per annum to attend to each subscribing lodge member or family.  This could constitute a substantial part of the doctor’s income, particularly if they restricted lodge consultations to the office and saw many patients per hour.  Competition and the economy forced this rate down in some cases to 9/-pa. Thomson, whilst dependent in part on the Lodges, publicly argued in favour of restrictions on those encompassed by a subscription, eligible income limits and the right to impose extra charges for special services such as anesthetic.

 

With the establishment of the St Joseph’s Foundling Home in Broadmeadows in 1901 Thomson became its Honorary Medical Officer.  He then seems to have become the channel whereby a number of single, Catholic, pregnant lasses were confined under his care in Essendon private maternity hospitals.  The babies, if they survived infancy, were then fostered and later informally adopted or returned to St Joseph’s for care.  

 

The Thomsons appear to have taken a full part in the life of the district.  They are to be found attending Mayoral and other balls.  John was a member of the Essendon and Flemington District Rifle Club.  He also became keen cyclist, undertaking long trips to Ballarat and along the coast.  In addition he lectured and examined for the Trained Nurses Association and the St Johns’ Ambulance Brigade.  In 1896 he attended the Intercolonial Medical Congress in Dunedin, New Zealand.  In 1898 he became Treasurer for Victorian branch of the British Medical Association.  In 1898 he took the chair at the inaugural meeting to found the Geelong Old Boys Association.

 

In 1894 Andrew and Charlotte Suter came to reside in Chaucer St, Moonee Ponds.  Andrew Suter had developed increasingly severe vision problems, causing him to lose his eyesight completely before his death in 1899.  The Suter year books record  day to day life in this now suburban family.  Charlotte Suter notes frequent visits from Georgie and Jack, outings with Georgie to town for shopping, visits to mutual friends such as Dr Fishbourne and family, the comings and goings of servants and the purchase of whiskey, household linen and jam making.  The extended Suter family often visited.  Georgie undertook journeys to Mortlake, Lake Tyers and held regular At Homes.  Both the Suters and Thomsons drove to Government House to write their name in the book.  Charlotte recorded the splendid victory on Federation Day 1898 and in 1901 the Thomsons, as invited guests, took full part in the official Federation celebrations.  

 

In the period 1901-1905 family responsibilities pressed hard.  In 1901 Georgie’s surveyor brother Ronald returned from Queensland with his wife and 12 month old daughter.  Lily Suter was ill and despite John Thomson traveling to Ballarat to operate on her she died in August 1901.  Georgie stayed on with Ronald anxious for his state of mind.  When he took up an appointment in South Africa the child stayed with Georgie and Jack, becoming Isabel Jean Suter Thomson.

 

Mabel Suter b 1868, Georgie’s sister, had married at St Thomas’, Moonee Ponds in 1897. Her sons Noel Wemyss McHaffie and Vernon Suter McHaffie, were born in Essendon in 1899 and 1901.  On the 25th January, 1902 Mabel died.  Her husband David was a grazier at East Poowong, and the children were cared for by the Thomson family.  David McHaffie remarried in 1903 and immediately started another family.  The McHaffie boys stayed on with Georgie and Jack to be raised by them, again using their surname.  In space of five months Dr and Mrs.  Thomson, aged in their mid-40s, had gone from being childless to being the parents of three children under three.

 

Martha Thomson died at her son’s home in 1903 and Charlotte Fisher Suter in 1905. She was a link with the first days of white settlement.  Born in Tasmania in 1830 she had arrived in Port Phillip in 1836 when her father David Fisher was induced by John Batman to try his fortune here.  Charlotte’s death was more than usually stressful for the family.  John was his mother- in-laws medical attendant and visited the Lorne St home twice daily.  After the death it was found that two of Charlotte’s ne’er do well sons had unduly influenced the then incapable Charlotte to make a new will. Dr Thomson took the lead in having the matter brought before the Court and the will was set aside.  Georgie took a share of the £3300 estate though legal fees were substantial.   

 

Despite or because of this, John Thomson continued his activities.  He became Doctor of Medicine in 1900. Like many doctors he was a long-term member of the Australian Health Society which lobbied for sanitation, health education and reform.  In this decade he became best known for his advocacy of temperance, anti-smoking and food reform.  He regularly lectured on The Deadly Cigarette, Food Reform, Scientific Temperance and Baths and Bathing.  Several of his lectures were published by the Total Abstinence Society and he was an office bearer in the Total Abstinence branch of the British Medical Association.  Thomson was also supportive of the Vegetarian Society of Australia and attended their yearly vegetarian Banquets.  In 1908 he became the inaugural President of the Food Reform League (patron Mrs.  Alfred Deakin) and hosted his own repast.  

 

A number of representative citizens assembled yesterday on the invitation  of Dr.  J.  R M.  Thompson, President of the Food Reform League, to eat a vegetarian lunch.  The rendezvous was the Institute of Domestic Economy, in Lonsdale Street.  The meal was skillfully prepared and nicely served.  The menu card -Soup Jardiniere, White Soup, Brighton Stew, Alexandra Pie, Curried Lentils; Chocolate Pudding, Semolina Pudding, Macaroni Cheese.

 

In 1908 John Thomson stood for election as a member of the Essendon Board of Advice.  This body was responsible for the upkeep and good running of all local Essendon schools. He topped the poll with 259 votes.  His candidacy may have been helped by one of his reports as M.  O.  for Broadmeadows having appeared some three weeks before in the Essendon Gazette.  Titled The Sanitary defects in Broadmeadows State Schools, it filled 3 full columns of the front page.  Thomson thanked his community for his election victory and said he would apply himself to the best of my abilities.  He became the Secretary of the Board and in the next few months participated in a day long inspectorial visit to all Essendon schools, attended the Victorian Conference of the BOA and waited on the Minster as part of a delegation which amongst other things desired regular medical inspection of all schoolchildren.  

 

He had also recommenced formal study and in 1909 was awarded the Diploma of Public Health.

 

Dr J R M Thomson DM, BS, Dip H in 1909 as pictured in Punch May 1909.

 

In October 1909 Dr Thomson advertised that his practice was now located in city rooms and St Ronan’s, Caulfield.  By July 1910, however, he was being farewelled as he was now to practice at Violet Town.  Again he became active in this community.  He became secretary of the Progress Association and involved with the local school.  He also took up rose growing and socialism.  In 1896 Thomson seems to have attended a set of University Extension lectures on Modern Socialism.  When in 1912 a Labor organizer came to Violet Town Dr Thomson became Secretary of the new local group.  His time in this town was terminated by a new job.

 

 In August 1913 the Labor Call announced Our splendid comrade of many years' standing, Dr.  J.  R.  M.  Thomson, was a visitor to the rooms this week.  It was a treat to see his cheery face and listen to his encouraging predictions.  Our doctor comrade has left Violet Town, and proceeds to Canberra, the new Federal capital, as Government medical officer.  We congratulate him on his responsible appointment.

 

By 1914 Thomson was well established in the town being a member of the Canberra Glee Club.

Seated far right. Table Talk June 1914.

 

War came in August 1914 and impacted on Thomson’s family as it did almost every other in the country.  His nephew and namesake John Thomson Tait had graduated in medicine in 1911 and was now the Medical Superintendent of the Melbourne Hospital.  He enlisted and served in Egypt and France, attaining the rank of Major and was invalided home with polio in mid-1918.  Dr Thomson Tait went on to a distinguished medical career both in Australia and the UK. His brother James Blair Tait (later Sir James), a graduate in law, served from 1917-1919 as a pilot in the Australian Flying Corps. Closer to home Noel had returned to using his father’s name and enlisted in 1917, serving in Signals.  He returned to Australia in 1919

 

Born in Essendon Noel, a wireless operator, enlisted aged 18 years and served overseas, with his father’s permission.

Museums Victoria: From the Collection of Phillip Island and District Historical Society Inc. The McHaffies were Phillip Island’s pioneer settler family.   

 

In Canberra Thomson took a major role managing musical entertainments, home concerts and fetes in aid of the Federal Territory War Relief Fund.  He gained Special mention for his untiring efforts, on which depended the success of the events.

 

He regularly continued to remit donations to Labor Funds.  In a splendid letter to Labor Call   The Doctor expressed a longing to be back amidst the comrades in Melbourne, and he sounds a note that many a correspondent is sounding these days—the note of the consolation that comes through being part and parcel of a movement, such as we have in Melbourne, rather than being cut off from all sympathetic associations.

 

In 1917 The Call announced that the doctor had been transferred to a position as School Medical Officer in the Education Department of New South Wales.  The Call saw it as a promotion.  Thomson described the system:

 

Our scheme of medical inspection of school children is a big one, on a much bigger scale than the Victorian one.  We systematically examine all the school children.  Even going hard as we can it takes three or four years to go round them all.  I examine schools at the rate of six or seven a week, travelling all the time.

 

His published schedule of school visits indicate the punishing nature of the work, very demanding of a 61 year old.  In each town he allowed time to speak individually with concerned parents and always gave a lecture regarding children’s health.  In 1921 one who attended described Thomson’s talk as one of the finest most entertaining, most instructive and helpful addresses it has been the writer's good fortune to hear.

 

In 1919 he was temporarily posted to Broken Hill hospital during the influenza epidemic dealing with all the involved issues of isolation and infection.

 

In the mid-1920s the family returned to Victoria and lived for a time at the St Ronan’s Mt Alexander Rd house. They then were for a time at Geelong where Thomson was still practicing up to 1930.  Jean lived with Georgie and Jack until her marriage in 1928. Thomson died at the couples Elsternwick house in 1934.  In 1940 Georgina, widow of this restless, multi-faceted man also died.  The estate of £3360 was split between Vernon McHaffie Thomson (by then serving with the 2^nd AIF) and Jean Isabel Suter Thomson (Nield).  Suter family portraits were bequeathed to Georgie’s brothers and Thomson oil paintings and books to the Tait nephews.  There was also a bequest to the 3^rd Church of Christ Scientist.  

 

Vernon and Jean, cousins raised as brother and sister by their aunt and uncle, also inherited a substantial quantity of Suter and Thomson family documents.  Many of these had moved with the couple between a dozen different homes across three States.  The cousins, Georgie’s and Jack’s heirs, eventually donated the family papers to the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.  These now reside in multiple manuscript boxes: the Record Description List labelling this legacy as Overall an excellent primary source for nineteenth century social history in the context of family life. 

 

                                                                                          ©M Kenny 2018

 

References

Chalmers R Annals of Essendon.

Gregory A The Ever Open Door- history of the Royal Melbourne Hospital

Lemon A Broadmeadows The Forgotten History.

Pensabene T. S.   The Rise of the Medical Practitioner in Victoria 

 

Primary Sources

Royal Historical Society of Victoria:  Papers, 1663-1939; Suter family; MS 000656 (Box 155 to Box 164)

          Personal papers: Thomson, John Rae Menzies, 1856-.   MS 000632 (Box 165 (1-3))

PROV: Inquests, Wills and Probates, Shipping Lists

NAA: Service Records

State Library of Victoria: Sands and McDougall Directories, MMBW Maps  

Newspapers: Essendon Gazette, Table Talk, Argus, The Age, Labor Call, Table Talk, Punch, The Daily News, WA Record.

Web Sites: University of Melbourne Medical School Archives