(Material researched & presented by Barbara Armstrong)

Philip Douglas Smith was born at Wynyard, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, and educated at the Launceston Church Grammar School.

He gained his medical qualifications from Edinburgh (MB and CM, 1894). He was house surgeon at the Hahnemann Homœopathic Hospital, Liverpool for 12 months.  After leaving there he was engaged in a large private practice at Rochdale for 4 years.

He joined Dr Gutteridge in Launceston in 1898, arriving on 24 September aboard the "Pateena".  He, along with Dr Gutteridge, did much to advance the cause of homœopathy in the north of Tasmania. Gutteridge, Smith and the pharmacist Mr Styant Browne, worked together in the formative years of the Launceston Homœopathic Hospital. Drs Gutteridge and Smith were the first two medical officers appointed to the Hospital. Dr Smith was still listed as the Hospital’s honorary medical officer in the 1915 edition of the Directory. He finally retired in 1946, after 46 years of service as honorary medical officer.

©   Barbara Armstrong

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