William Crooke

William Crooke (baptised 4 August 1815 – 10 December 1901) was a surgeon and politician in colonial Australia. He served in both houses of the parliament of Tasmania during the 1850s.[1]

Biography

Born in Derreen, County Cork, Ireland, Crooke was baptised on 4 August 1815.[2] Around 1839–41,[1][3] he arrived in Van Diemen's Land, which would become known as Tasmania.[4] He was a surgeon in the convict department of St Mary's Hospital in Hobart Town.[5][6] From 1843 to 1847, he held the position of house surgeon at the General Hospital, Hobart Town.[7] He served as a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council for Buckingham from 1855 to 1856,[8] which he unsuccessfully contested in 1853,[1][9] before serving in the Tasmanian House of Assembly for Franklin from 1856 to 1857.[1] He proposed unsuccessfully for the Tasmanian government to fund £20,000 per year (equivalent to more than A$3 million in 2015) for the establishment of a state-owned university to rival mainland Australia.[10]

In 1857, Crooke moved to Victoria, where he ran a surgery in Fitzroy, Melbourne. He was appointed Victorian public vaccinator after successfully identifying an outbreak of smallpox.[3] He was also Australia's first medical practitioner to identify diseased milk as a factor in the production of diphtheria.[3] He died at age 86 at St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, on 10 December 1901.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Bennett, Scott & Bennett, Barbara (1980). Biographical register of the Tasmanian Parliament, 1851–1960 (PDF). ANU Press. p. 92. ISBN 9780994637413. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  2. ↑ "Dr William Crooke". zikzak.net. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "William Crooke MD". Sebra Paints. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  4. ↑ Connor, Michael (1 May 2010). "Fabricated feminist flashers". Quadrant. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  5. 1 2 "The late Dr. Cooke". The Leader. 21 December 1901. p. 36. Retrieved 19 June 2021 – via Trove.
  6. ↑ "St Mary's Hospital". University of Tasmania. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  7. ↑ "General Hospital Return to an Order of the Council" (PDF). Parliament of Tasmania. 1859. p. 3. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  8. ↑ "William Crooke". Members of the Parliament of Tasmania. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  9. ↑ "Early Melbourne". Truth. 9 September 1916. p. 3. Retrieved 19 June 2021 – via Trove.
  10. ↑ "The University Opens to Talent". University of Tasmania. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
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