Walter Hadwen

Walter Robert Hadwen MD MRCS MRCP (3 August 1854, Woolwich – 27 December 1932) was a Gloucester general practitioner and pharmaceutical chemist, president of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), and an anti-vaccination campaigner known for his denial of the germ theory of disease.

Walter Robert Hadwen
Born3 August 1854
Woolwich
Died27 December 1932 (1932-12-28) (aged 78)
Gloucester
OccupationPhysician, pharmaceutical chemist, writer

Biography

Hadwen began his career as a pharmacist in Clapham then Somerset, then subsequently trained as a doctor at Bristol University. After qualifying, he moved to Gloucester in 1896. Hadwen was recruited as a member of BUAV by its founder and then president Frances Power Cobbe who hired a private investigator to assess his credentials (he was a vegetarian and total abstainer, had a reputation as a "firebrand" orator and was held in "high local esteem"). She subsequently selected him as her successor.[1]

He joined the Plymouth Brethren as an adult. He was a frequent speaker for the National Anti-Vaccination League. He was also a member of the London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial (founded in 1896). Hadwen stated that the "modern germ theory is all bosh".[2]

Hadwen was active in general practice until he died from a severe heart attack in 1932, age 78.[3] In his honour the Dr Hadwen Trust was founded in 1970 to fund exclusive non-animal techniques to replace animal experiments.[3]

Vegetarianism

Hadwen became a vegetarian in his early twenties when taking a bet from a fellow student that he could live six months without eating meat. His bet was successful and he stated that "For my part I am quite satisfied with my trial of vegetarianism, and it would take more than mortal power to persuade me once again to make my stomach a graveyard for the purpose of burying dead bodies in."[3]

Manslaughter trial

In 1924, having applied his rejection of the germ theory of disease, and his refusal to use diphtheria anti-serum produced by inoculation of animals to the treatment of Nellie Burnham, a young girl, she died and he was tried for manslaughter by criminal medical negligence.[4] He was acquitted of all charges.[5][6]

Selected publications

See also

References
  1. Mitchell, Sally. (2004). Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press. p. 360. ISBN 0-8139-2271-2
  2. "Verdict of Manslaughter Against Dr. Hadwen by Coroner's Jury". Journal of the American Medical Association. 83 (14): 1090. 1924.
  3. Mills, Daniel S. (2010). The Encyclopedia of Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare. CABI. pp. 188-189. ISBN 9780851997247
  4. The Times up to and including 30 October 1924.
  5. "Acquittal of Dr. Hadwen". Journal of the American Medical Association. 83 (20): 1601. 1924.
  6. "Topics of the Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 December 2020.

Further reading
  • Who Was Dr Hadwen Biography at Dr Hadwen Trust.
  • Bodily Matters: The Anti-Vaccination Movement in England, 1853-1907, Nadja Durbach, 2005, Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-3423-2
  • Hadwen of Gloucester: Man, Medico, Martyr, by Beatrice E. Kidd and M. Edith Richards, 1933, John Murray, London.
  • Obituary, The Times, Saturday, 25 February 1933 John Murray, London, 1933.
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