[1821 - 1883]

Francis Irvine was born on 25 August 1821 at Sydney, New South Wales. He was the son of Captain Francis Irvine, who had served with the military in India, and his wife Frances Sophia Harington. According to his obituary (see below), Francis and his family returned to Europe while he was still a child.

Dr Irvine gained his medical degree at Edinburgh, his qualifications being LRCS Edinburgh 1842, MD Edinburgh 1842. According to his obituary, he studied under Drs Hahnemann and Jahr in Paris.

On 7 June 1848 he married Sarah Anne Oates at Chapel Allerton, Leeds, Yorkshire. While in England they had 5 children, although their first child died at 6 years of age.

Dr Irvine was listed in the 1853 British and Foreign Homœopathic Medical Directory. At that time he practised at 6 South Parade, Leeds, Yorkshire and was physician to the Leeds Homœopathic Dispensary. He contributed to the British Journal of Homœopathy, vol VI – "On Andral's Homœopathic Experiments".

In 1855 he was listed as being at 50 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, and was on the Medical Council of the London Homœopathic Hospital.

Dr Irvine, his wife, and their 4 children arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, in August 1860. They then boarded the Lord Ashley, bound for Sydney. However, almost immediately they returned to New Zealand and settled in Nelson. The London and Provincial Homœopathic Medical Directory of 1866 stated that he was in Nelson, New Zealand. The Homœopathic Directory of Great Britain & Ireland for 1873 also listed Dr Irvine as a practitioner at Nelson, New Zealand. However, it appears that at that time Dr Irvine was living in Sydney, Australia.

While Dr Irvine spent most of his time in New Zealand, for a few years he tried his luck in Australia. The New Zealand newspapers of February 1870 reported that he was about to return to England, but that he expected to return at the end of the year.

Dr Irvine was first registered as a medical practitioner in New South Wales in 1870. From May 1870 he was registered by the Medical Board and that he would provide consultations from 34 College Street, Hyde Park. He also stated that he was 'one of the original members of the British Homœopathic Society'.

In July 1870 an advertisement appeared stating that Dr Irvine was establishing a 'Homœopathic Club':

HOMŒOPATHIC CLUB - The object of this Club is to furnish its Members and their families, on payment of a small sum monthly, medical advice, attendance, and all necessary medicines. The Club is now forming. Applications to be made to Dr Irvine, 34 College-street, Hyde Park, or to Arnold & Co., Homœopathic Chemists, 452 George-street, where the prospectus is to be seen.
NB. Intending Members are requested to send in their names at once.

By December 1872 he was at 149 Phillip Street, Sydney. However, he frequently returned to Nelson, for example in January 1871 when he read a paper before the Nelson Association for the Promotion of Science and Industry. His paper, relating to experiments aimed at interrupting the flow of a galvanic current, was published in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, vol. IV. He thought that it would be of use when considering various means of preventing overheating and spontaneous combustion of wool and flax when being transported by sea.

According to his obituary Dr Irvine remained in Sydney for 7 years, after which he returned to Nelson. However, the final mention of him in Sydney newspapers was in 1874. The 1875 edition of the Sand's Sydney and Suburban Directory had two listings for him: one was as "MD" at St John's Rd, Glebe; the other was in the list of 'legally qualified medical practitioners', with an address at 579 Bourke Street.

Dr Irvine's final home was at Claremont House, corner of Hardy and Alton Streets, Nelson. Dr Irvine died on 5 May, 1883. His wife, Sarah, died at the age of 71 on 21 May, 1893 at Brooklyn Street, Burwood, New South Wales.

The Nelson Evening Mail of 5 May 1883 recorded the following details of his life:

DEATH OF DR IRVINE
It is with unfeigned regret that we announce to-day the death of Dr Francis Wemyss Irvine, one of the most respected of Nelson's citizens, which took place at Claremont house shortly before one o'clock this morning. For some months the deceased had been ailing and a few weeks ago he took a trip to Christchurch hoping thereby to restore his health, but he returned to Nelson no better, and shortly afterwards took to his bed. He had been a great sufferer, especially during the last two days, until an hour before his death when he appeared to be suddenly freed from all pain and lay perfectly calm and quiet, passing away at the hour named so peacefully that it was difficult for the watchers by his bedside to fix the precise moment at which the spirit took its flight.

The deceased, who was born in Sydney, in 1821, was the son of Captain Irvine, who, accompanied by his wife, came to New South Wales, we believe, on the Governor's staff, and grandson of Alexander Irvine of Drum Castle, in Aberdeenshire. He went home when quite a child, and was at school for some time at Berne, in Switzerland, and at Boulogne whence he moved to Scotland and took his literary course at Marechal College and University, Aberdeen, where he had for contemporaries - a fact to which he frequequently referred with considerable pleasure - Professors Masson and Bain. He obtained his M.D. degree at Edinburgh, and subsequently studied under Drs Yhar [sic] and Hanhemann [sic] in Paris. Al little later he married Miss Oates, a member of an old Yorkshire family.

He came to Nelson in 1860, and as a homœopathic doctor very soon established a large practice. Quiet and retired though he was, the people of Nelson were not slow to discover that a man of more than ordinary ability had come to reside in their midst, and it was not long before he was invited to take part in public affairs, in which he always displayed a keen interest. In March, 1866, he was elected one of the Governors of the Nelson College, an office which he continued to hold until 1873, when he left for Sydney where he remained for some time. [Note: According to advertisements of the time he was in Sydney in 1870 - see above.] In that interval of seven years he was also a member of the Provincial Council for two sessions, having been elected to represent the town in that body.

Although not a fluent or pleasing speaker he was always listened to with attention, for he never rose to address the chair unless he had something to say that was worth hearing. His fellow Councillors soon became aware of this, and there was not one of themselves to whose opinions they attached greater weight than to Dr Irvine's.

In mining matters he always took a deep and practical interest, and was ever ready to assist with his purse or by his advice in developing the mineral wealth of this provincial district. Himself an exceedingly well read man and an accomplished scholar, it was one of the objects of his life to create and encourage a love for literature in others, and with this view he was always willing to serve on the Institute Committee, of which he was a most valued member, and was last year elected President.

Hitherto we have only referred to Dr Irvine as a public man, but there is another capacity, that of a true warm-hearted friend, in which his loss, though of necessity by a smaller number, will yet be felt most keenly. Of a sympathetic nature and a generous disposition, he was ever ready to assist to the utmost in his power all who were "in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity," and there are very many of these who will shed a tear of genuine sorrow when they learn that the kind hearted "doctor" has been taken from them, and will feel that they have been deprived of a friend and adviser whom they could ill afford to lose. Dr Irvine was a Freemason, and his remains will be followed to the grave tomorrow afternoon by the members of that Order.

©   Barbara Armstrong      

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