Views of Maitland

People

HARBISON John Wesley

Gender:	male
Date of Birth:	14 February 1861
Place of Birth:	Melbourne Country: Australia
Father:	HARBISON John
Mother:	Mary Annd
Date of Arrival:	n/a
Ship:	n/a
Naturalisation:	n/a
Marital status:	married
Spouse:	1) THOMSON Agnes Scott (1874-1922) 2) PENDER Jeannie Baker
Date Married:	1) 1894, 30 May 2) 1925
Place Married:	1) Shepparton, Vic 2) West Maitland
Children:	1) Dorothy M (1895-1896), Francis (1896-1896), John Kenneth (1898-1985), Leslie James (1900-1993), Victor Roy (1901-1972), Marjorie Jean (1903-1997), Bruce Lister (1906-1992), Anna Graeme (1909-1993)
Occupations:	medical practitioner
Places of Residence:	Melbourne, Shepparton, Maitland, Hornsby
Date of Death:	24 April 1938
Place of Death:	Hornsby, NSW
Buried at:
Profile:
Born in Victoria in 1861, by 1901 John Harbison, his wife Agnes and their surviving two children (two others had died as babies) had settled in West Maitland where they had a further four children. Agnes Harbison died in 1922 and, three years later, John Harbison married Jeannie Pender in Maitland. John Harbison practised medicine in Maitland and district until the 1930s. His surgery was in High Street, West Maitland. There are reports in the local newspaper of the patients he attended and treated, his involvement with community events and organisations, and his appearances at coronial enquiries. At times he served as a medical officer at the Maitland Hospital and, following his death in 1938, was recognised by the Maitland Hospital as ‘a member of the honorary medical staff for a number of years’ (Maitland Mercury, 20 May 1938). It seems, however, that it was not always a firm relationship. On a couple of occasions he either resigned from being on the medical staff or declined the invitation to do so. He objected to the conditions under which medical staff were regulated. In 1903, for example, he observed that one of the rules ‘governing the attendance of medical staff… would practically render a medical officer liable to attend the Hospital the whole 365 days, although his nominal length of duty extended over one month’ (Maitland Mercury, 10 March 1903). In 1909 he declined the invitation to join the staff, although he declared he ‘would attend to patients sent in by him’ (Maitland Mercury, 6 Mar 1909).

Related Records

Local Government Areas:
Maitland City
Sites:
Maitland Hospital	Maitland	Maitland City
Towns:
Maitland
Publications, Reports, Theses:
Ancestry.com.au Maitland Mercury NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Internet Index to NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages (NSW BDM)

Views of Maitland Record No.: P805
Created: 31/10/2021
By: Janis Wilton
Modified
By