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