Walter Hadwen
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Walter Robert Hadwen MD MRCS MRCP (August 3, 1854, Woolwich - December 27, 1932) was a Gloucester GP and pharmaceutical chemist, president of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), and an anti-vaccination campaigner known for his denial of the germ theory of disease.
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[edit] Biography
Hadwen began his career as a pharmacist in Clapham then Somerset, then subsequently trained as a doctor at Bristol University. After qualifying, he moved to Gloucester in 1896. Hadwen was recruited as a member of BUAV by its founder and then president Frances Power Cobbe who hired a private investigator to assess his credentials (he was a vegetarian and total abstainer, had a reputation as a "firebrand" orator and was held in "high local esteem"). She subsequently selected him as her successor.
He joined the Plymouth Brethren as an adult.
As a frequent speaker for the National Anti-Vaccination League, his opposition to vaccination focused[citation needed] on his view of the deficiencies of smallpox vaccination.
He was also a member of the London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial (founded in 1896).
[edit] Manslaughter trial
In 1924, having applied his rejection of the germ theory of disease, and his refusal to use diphtheria anti-serum produced by inoculation of animals to the treatment of Nellie Burnham, a young girl, she died and he was tried for manslaughter by criminal medical negligence[1]. He was acquitted of all charges.
[edit] Publications
By
- 1896, "The Case Against Vaccination"
- The Difficulties of Dr Deguerre
- 1902 Smallpox at Gloucester. A reply to Dr. Coupland’s Report by Walter Hadwen. Reprinted from “The Reformer,” National Anti-Vaccination League: Gloucester
About
- Hadwen of Gloucester: Man, Medico, Martyr, by Beatrice E. Kidd and M. Edith Richards, 1933, John Murray, London
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- The story of Dr Hadwen Biography at Dr Hadwen Trust
- Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminism, Journalist, Reformer, Sally Mitchell, 2004, University of Virginia Press ISBN 0-8139-2271-2
- Bodily Matters: The Anti-Vaccination Movement in England, 1853-1907, Nadja Durbach, 2005, Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-3423-2
- Obituary, The Times, Saturday, Feb 25, 1933 John Murray, London, 1933
[edit] External links
- SoilAndHealth.org - 'The Case Against Vaccination' , Walter Hadwen (January 25, 1896)
- SoilAndHealth.org - ' The Fraud of Vaccination', Dr. Hadwen, Truth, (January 3, 1923)