(Material researched & presented by Barbara Armstrong)

[1830 - 1903]

Charles Cook was born at Portsea in Hampshire, England on 25 June, 1830 and baptised on 2 September 1830.  He was a son of Charles Cook, a confectioner, and his wife Eliza.

In later years Charles stated that in the years 1847-48 and 1849 he was a medical student in the Portsea Hospital in Hampshire under Drs Scott, Girdlestone and others, all allopaths.  However, according to England's 1851 census he was listed as a confectioner, living with his family.

By 1858 Charles Cook was living in Castlemaine in Victoria, Australia.  Advertisements in the Mount Alexander Mail show that he was working as a pastrycook and confectioner, owning his own business. 

In October 1870 Charles appeared at a coroner's inquest in Castlemaine, involving the death of a Mr Sutton.  The inquest considered 'rumours that he had not received proper medical aid during his illness'.  The patient had been treated by Charles Cook, Mr Yandell who was a herbalist, and by Dr Hutchison, although the patient had indicated that he had a preference for non-allopathic treatment and had opposed seeing an allopath.  Although Charles Cook was committed to trial, he was eventually found not guilty and acquitted.

During the inquest Mr Cook stated that he was 'a confectioner and homœopathist', and that he had been carrying on this business for 10 years.  He stated that he obtained his drugs from Gould and Martin in Melbourne, and that he had 'fifty books treating on the subject, by Hemphill, Morgan and others'.  The newspaper reported:

I have seen and spoken to Drs Günst, Ray, and other homœopathists in Melbourne and Castlemaine in the last ten years as to the mode of treatment by the use of homœopathic medicines. The witness then gave the particulars of his attendance at lectures by allopathists, and added, I simply attended Portsea as a student, and have not since followed that branch of the profession.  I have constantly during the last nine or ten years prescribed and sold homœopathic medicines in Castlemaine to more than one thousand persons.  The patients generally come to me.  I get the medicines in their strong form and dilute them.  I label dangerous medicines with the word "poison".

The first advertisement mentioning his activities as a homœopathic chemist appeared in the Mount Alexander Mail
in May 1876, when he advertised his homœopathic dispensary in Mostyn Street, Castlemaine.  Advertisements continued there until at least May 1876. 

Around 1877 or 1878 the family moved to Bendigo in Victoria, where he advertised his business as a homœopathic chemist in the Bendigo Advertiser of 12 March 1878.  In a later advertisement in 1888 he thanked his friends and the public for their patronage for the last 30 years.  In a later statement in 1899 he said that he had prescribed for patients both in Bendigo and Castlemaine for 45 years. This would mean that he had arrived in Australia around 1854, although this cannot be confirmed at this stage.

In addition to his activities as a chemist, in some advertisements Charles Cook referred to himself as a homœopathist, providing consultations from his dispensary.

Mr Cook had six children, one of whom (Dr James Cook) became a registered medical practitioner who worked for a period at the Melbourne Homœopathic Hospital. 

Mr Cook died at age 73 on 25 May, 1903 at Mt Korong Road, Bendigo.

For more details about his activities as a chemist, see C. Cook's Homœopathic Dispensary.

©   Barbara Armstrong

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