Cover image for Benjafield Family
Agency:
Benjafield Family
Agency Number:
Start Date:
01 Jan 1845
Description:
Dr Harry Benjafield (1845 - 1917), medical practitioner, public figure and entrepreneur, born 8 March 1845 at Silton, Wiltshire, England grew up on the family farm but pursued a career in medicine. He studied first at the University College, London and the University of Edinburgh. Immediately after he married Amelia Pywell on 8 February 1873 they sailed for Hobart where he commenced practice as a homeopathic doctor. ;;;;His services were free to patients in poor circumstances and he was active in promoting the benefits of vaccination, fresh air, clean water, sunshine and fresh food especially for the treatment of tuberculosis. He served as a medical officer for various local government services and also preached and wrote religious tracts and did much to establish Hobart's Baptist Church. He supported Friend's High School and joined a Protestant reformist move in municipal politics and was active in the Mount Stuart Town Board, which he chaired in 1896 - 99. He also established St John's Homeopathic Hospital in South Hobart in 1899.;;;;His entrepreneurial ventures in dairying and especially orcharding make him a major figure in the history of Tasmania's fruit industry, although his career was not without setbacks and some scandal. He nevertheless prospered financially, building "The Willows" (later "Mimosa") in Elizabeth Street, North Hobart in 1879 at a reputed cost of five thousand pounds. He also owned orcharding land at Nubeena on the Tasman's Peninsula, but spent his later years from about 1905 at Albert Park (now Dorset House) at Moonah.;;;;He had a family of five sons and five daughters and left an estate of thirty one thousand pounds.
Information Sources:
Australian Dictionary of Biography;;;;AOT "correspondence file"
Functions Performed:
Family archives