WILLIAM ISAAC SPENCER FLS DOCTOR SOLDIER CITIZEN MAYOR by Ian St George William Isaac Spencer 1832–1897. Dr. Spencer 18th R.I., photographer William Francis Gordon, collection of Puke Ariki, New Plymouth, PHO2014-0070. Principiis obsta: sero medicina paratur, Quum mala per longas convaluere moras. —Ovid [Stop it at the beginning; a cure is attempted too late when, through long delay, the illness has gained strength]. How much how very much have I to be thankful for all—for the dear good husband & children & my happy comfortable home & indeed I do feel truly thankful for all God’s blessings so richly bestowed. —Anna (Heatly) Spencer CONTENTS Chapters 1. Britain 1 2. Sebastopol 3 3. Army surgeon in the New Zealand 9 4. The war in Hawke’s Bay 38 5. Soldier and citizen of Napier 56 6. Dr Spencer’s case book 115 7. The scientist 136 8. Family 157 9. Endings 171 Acknowledgments 175 Appendix A. 18th Royal Irish 176 B. Napier as a health resort 192 C. Works by Dr Spencer 203 Illustrations William Isaac Spencer frontispiece Mr G Spencer 1 The Turkish Contingent for the Crimea 3 Dr Spencer’s New Zealand War Medal and a photograph 8 Thomas McDonnell 13 Map: troop movements of the 18th Irish 18 British camp at Meremere July 1863 19 Rangiriri encampment, November 1863 20 Rangiriri with the Waikato river in the background 21 Rangiriri redoubt, November 1863 22 Rangiriri encampment 23 Māori church at Taupiri December 1863 24 Benjamin Ashwell’s Mission House, Taupiri 25 Ngaruawahia 26 Ngaruawahia, December 1863 27 Ngaruawahia, December 1863 28 Waipa, January 1864 29 Limestone formations in the lower Pakoka river valley 30 Camp at Whatawhata, January 1864 31 Tuhikaramea, early 1864 32 Te Rore 33 Pa Terangi, February 1864 34 At Rangiaowhia, February 1864 35 Soldiers of the 18th Royal Irish at Whanganui 36 Army barracks, Napier, about 1867 39 Napier military barracks 40 Militia training, Napier barracks 40 Militia training, Napier barracks 41 Military training, Napier Barracks 41 Men outside Napier barracks, about 1867 42 Gore Brown Barracks, Napier 42 18th Royal Irish, perhaps at Napier 43 18th Royal Irish 43 Spencer, about 1865 44 The Spencers’ house in Lincoln Rd 61 Photograph Tennyson St 1860 or 1861 62 The Spencers’ home in Tennyson St 62 Rangataiki bridge 75 “Mohaka—Pene lives at Raupunga” 76 Tarawera redoubt, about 1870 77 Bridge 77 Atiamuri: Te Niho-o-te-Kiore 78 Atiamuri about 1864 78 Atiamuri: site of the redoubt 79 Spencer at about the time he was elected Mayor 83 Tiromoana to the right of the Hawke’s Bay Club 85 Dr Spencer’s microscope 138 Fresh water algae 144 Apparatus for manufacturing iron from ironsand 151, 152 Anna Heatly 156 Tiromoana 159 Device of the 18th Royal Irish 158 Dr Spencer and son Willie 163 Medicine chest 164 A river, a boat… 166 Charles Spencer 168 Bessie Spencer 168 Emily Spencer 168 John Spencer 168 Headstone 174 1 CHAPTER 1: BRITAIN Dr William Isaac Spencer was Napier’s third mayor and yet we know nothing certain about his origins until an 1851 census record of his surgical apprenticeship in Yorkshire. His birthplace is recorded there as “Mosley, Lancashire” and a later military document records “Mosley, Lancaster”. Circumstantial evidence suggests he was the son of Elizabeth (Hines) Spencer and George Samuel Spencer 1803–1894, independent minister of (in 1841) nearby Smithy Brow in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire. William was born on 27 November 1832, the second child after his brother George, two years older. A sister, Eliza, was born in 1838.1 Biographical details for his brother George Spencer 1830–1922 tell us something of his roots; George… … achieved no mean success as a business man, musician, politician, poet and preacher of the Gospel… a man of unusual gifts and character. The son of a Congregational Minister, who became Headmaster of an Endowed Grammar School, he inherited aptitudes for literary and oratorical pursuits, that account for the most striking features of his career. Born on December 14th, 1830, he enjoyed through his boyhood the advantage of superior intellectual and religious environment. It was fortunate for him that in this formative period of life, he had the use of his eyesight, and thus in scholarship obtained a grounding that was of immense service in after life, and also gained a sense of his surroundings in nature that memory and reflection used afterwards with such excellent effect. 2 At the age of fourteen years, an accident deprived him of sight, and this, no doubt, deflected him from the course life might have otherwise followed….2 In the 1851 Census the family was living in Bradfield Yorkshire and William Isaac Spencer, aged 18, was an unmarried articled surgeon’s pupil at 2 Pinfold St Sheffield, the house of George Turton MRCS, his wife Sarah and their servant Jane Clarke.3 In 1838 Turton was a member of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association as a Sheffield surgeon and in 1845 was a member of its Council, described as “Surgeon Accoucheur to the Dispensary, and Lecturer on Materia Medica and Midwifery at the Medical Institution, Sheffield, Yorkshire”.4 Spencer took the MB First Examination at the University of London in 1853,5 and having passed the later examinations he was admitted to Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons by its Court of Examiners on 13 July 1855. He gave his address as York-Place, Portman Square, London.6 Possibly Dr Spencer’s father, George Samuel Spencer had served as chaplain to the British forces at the Crimea. In any event ten weeks after Spencer’s MRCS the London Evening Standard announced that, having been selected for service with the Turkish Contingent, “W.I. Spencer, Gent.” would have the rank of Assistant Surgeon.7 1 1841 UK Census. 2 Dickinson G. George Spencer 1830–1922. Transcription of sketch in the Christian Messenger by Rev. John Bennett. My Primitive Methodist ancestors. http://www.myprimitivemethodists.org.uk/page/index.aspx accessed 23 October 2017. 3 1851 UK Census. 4 Trans. Provincial Medical & Surgical Assn. 1845; vol.13. Funded by public subscription, the Sheffield Medical Institution opened in 1829 on Surrey Street. It contained a museum/library, a dissecting room and a lecture room. It was the precursor of Sheffield Medical School. 5 Globe 12 August 1853. 6 Morning Advertiser 16 July 1855. 7 London Evening Standard 26 September 1855. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 3 CHAPTER 2: SEBASTOPOL “The Turkish Contingent for the Crimea”. From Illustrated London News 23 June 1855. Spencer was named among veterans of the Crimean War living in New Zealand;1 he had been in the Turkish Contingent, a British medical contingent for the allied Turkish Army, first announced in 1854.2 The Morning Post of 26 December 1855 listed the Medical Officers of the Turkish Contingent who were to have a step up in rank while locally employed, with the date of their appointments in 1855: Spencer had been appointed on 25 September as a “Gent.” (Acting Assistant- Surgeon) but was to have the local rank of Assistant-Surgeon.3 That war was fought October 1853 to February 1856 between the Russian Empire (Nicolas I) and an alliance among Britain, France (Napoleon III), Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire, over the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land. It culminated in the battle for 4 Sebastopol, which fell on 9 September 1855 after an eleven month siege. Over the winter of 1855 the allies destroyed the Russian fleet and docks and finally the Czar sued for peace in March 1856. The Treaty of Paris was signed on 30 March. The Turkish Contingent doctors were selected by Inspector-General Duncan MacPherson, who began recruiting from London medical schools in May 1855—Surgeons were experienced doctors over 30 years old, Assistant-Surgeons newly qualified doctors and Dressers were medical students. MacPherson referred to “the liberal terms offered by the Government” and he pointed out “the vast opportunities young men accepting would have of acquiring a practical knowledge of their profession, and the éclat that would be attached to their names during the rest of their careers.4 By no means all of the doctors and dressers recruited to the Turkish Contingent have been identified and Spencer’s name is not among those listed by J Shepherd (in Chap XVI: “The Turkish Contingent”, in The Crimean Doctors: a history of the British Medical Services in the Crimean War 1991), though he must have been in the second party to go. Most served in the primitive and unsanitary conditions of Turkish military hospitals: the Medical Times & Gazette reported in 1855, THE TURKISH MEDICAL SERVICE.—The… Daily News Correspondent… mentions the arrival of Dr. Farquhar, one of the chiefs of a Medical Staff of twenty English Surgeons sent out and paid by the Government, for the purpose of organizing the Hospitals and medical service of Omer Pacha’s army; for anything more deplorable than the state of his sick and wounded hitherto can hardly be imagined. The Turkish army which, when the war began, was 140,000 strong, did not amount to 80,000 when Omer Pacha crossed the Danube. I doubt very much whether at this moment it musters 60,000 fighting men. At the outside, supposing all the wounded to have died, not more than 10,000 have fallen by the sword of the enemy. One- third have been carried off by diseases that, under the circumstances, no human means could arrest; the rest have been killed by the doctors, who, with the aid of the pachas, 5 turned the Hospitals into slaughter-houses.