(Material researched & presented by Barbara Armstrong)

[1831 - 1911]

Edwin Cradock Nowell was born on 28 January, 1831 at Hobart. He became the Government statistician from 1866 to 1882 and was appointed as an honorary member of the Royal Statistical Society. From 1882 he was Clerk of the Legislative Council and was eventually decorated for the length and merit of his service to Tasmania.

A keen supporter of the temperance movement, he was also President and Treasurer of the St John's Friendly Society.

According to his obituary, Mr Nowell "fought the cause of homœopathy from the beginning in Hobart". It was he who edited the monthly publication Notes on Homœopathy which ran for a year commencing September 1870. The publication was produced with the intention "of correcting some of the erroneous impressions so generally prevalent on the subject of homœopathy, and of disseminating information as to its progress". This was the first mention of his involvement with homœopathy's cause, although the obituary implies that his knowledge and use of homœopathy commenced earlier.

At a meeting of supporters of homœopathy held in Hobart in April 1898, it was Mr Nowell who proposed the motion "That in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable to form an association for the furtherance of the cause of homœopathy in Tasmania, and the spread of the truths of similia similibus curantur." This resulted in the formation of the Tasmanian Homœopathic Association, of which he became the President.

Mr Nowell also became the President of the Hobart Homœopathic Hospital.

Mr Nowell died on 12 February, 1911 at the Hospital which he had helped to establish and manage.

©   Barbara Armstrong

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