Beulah Residents
The people who have lived at Beulah House over the years
Charles Henry Smith and Miriam Dowle Smith
Charles Smith was a merchant. The following information was published in the Examiner on 23 April 2019
Born in Watton, Herefordshire, in 1827, Charles Smith was only two years old when his father died. His mother remarried and Charles was educated at a private school in Twickenham before joining the family shipping business. At the age of 25 he left England for business opportunities in Australia no doubt encouraged by news of the great prosperity generated by the Victorian gold rush. He arrived in Melbourne in 1852 where he worked for Dalgety and, Blackwood which became Dalgety, Du Croz and Company in 1866.
Charles Henry Smith, Place of residence: 'Beulah' 21 High Street Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
He married Miriam Dowle in Melbourne in 1856 and the couple had seven children between 1857 and 1869 (Jane Florence, Percy Chapman, Charles Ernest, Robert Norman, James Harcourt, Elvira Mary & Lucy Miriam) and in 1874 made their home at the well-known High Street residence Beulah.
Smith family, taken 1884
By 1868 Charles Smith had become the managing partner of the firm. The partnership between Charles Smith and the Du Croz family legally expired in 1889. By the turn of the 20th century, Chas. H. Smith and Company was a large diversified business describing themselves as importers and general shipping agents. They sold a wide range of farm supplies, from barbed wire to sheep dip, and general merchandise for grocers and retail shops, as well as offering shipping and insurance services. Their role as pastoral agents remained a major part of the business as they stated in their advertising. “We advance upon purchase wool, grain, sheep and rabbit skins, and Colonial Produce for sale in London or Colonial markets.” Percy Smith.
Charles Smith was elected president of the Launceston Chamber of Commerce in 1876, a position he held until 1881, and was a member of the Launceston Marine Board from 1876 to 1878, and again in 1882. He was the Italian Consul for 25 years, a director of the Union Bank and the Cornwall Coal Company and when the Tasmanian Permanent Executors and Trustees Association was formed he became a director and was its chairman for 15 years.
Charles Smith’s son Percy Smith took over as managing director of Chas. H. Smith and Company in 1900. When Charles Smith died in 1904, at the age of 77, his obituary in The Examiner said he had worked almost up until his death. “For the past two years his health had been impaired, but he was able to attend fairly regularly at his office until a few weeks ago when he was compelled to take to his bed. “Although the deceased never took any active part in politics or municipal matters, he displayed a keen interest in mercantile affairs.”
Percy Smith was educated at the Launceston Church Grammar School. After working for Dalgety and Co. Ltd for a few years, he returned to Launceston and joined his father's firm, Chas Smith and Co. Percy became managing director in 1900 and remained in that position until his retirement in 1927. Percy married Charlotte Mary Barnard on 18 Sep 1909. They lived at 'Eversley', 64 Mayne Street, Invermay, and in 1922 moved to a new home at 23 High Street. As a young man Percy was a fine athlete. He was one of the first people in Launceston to own a motor car. From 1904 he became the consular agent for Italy. He was the director of several companies. Percy died on 15 Jun 1931 aged 72. His wife Mary died on 21 Apr 1968.
Percy Chapman Smith, Place of residence: 'Beulah' 21 High Street Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Miriam and Charles’s first child, Jane Florence Smith, left Beulah to go to England to marry William Sloggat Hawker, lived in Penally House in Cornwall, UK and had two daughters and a son - Florence, Claudine and Charles. Their 6th child, Elvira Mary Smith, married New Zealand-born Septimus Nichols on 23 Jan 1895 at the Holy Trinity Church, Launceston, by Archdeacon Hales. Septimus was the fourth son of Charles Nichols, of Dunedin, formerly a partner in Du Croz Nichols in Launceston, and who might have worked with Elvira's father. In 1897 the Nichols purchased the property 'Palmerston' at Cressy. They had three daughters: Lucy Mary (Mollie), Margaret Elvira (Madge) in 1897 and Nancy in 1899. Septimus died on 12 Nov 1950. Elvira died five years later on 11 Feb 1955 at the Toosey Memorial Hospital, Longford. Miriam and Charles’s child, 7th child, Lucy Miriam Smith, did not marry her residence at the time was at 'Palmerston', Cressy, with her widowed sister Elvira Nichols.
Elvira Mary Smith, Place of residence: 'Beulah' 21 High Street Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Lucy Miriam Smith, Place of residence: 'Beulah' 21 High Street Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
William Johnstone
According to ‘Immigration Place Australia’ William Johnstone was born in 1819. His wife, Martha Matilda Birnie, was born in 1822 into a family connected with the sea. The couple were married in 1841 and shortly thereafter William sold up his possessions and sailed from Gravesend with his young wife for Tasmania on board the barque “Arab” which was captained by W. Westmorland. William Johnstone was a merchant and he was bound for Australia with sufficient capital to establish a small retail business. The Johnstones prospered in Tasmania. In partnership with Stuart Eardley Wilmot, William founded a retail general merchant’s business in Launceston. This developed into the firm of Johnstone and Wilmot Pty. Ltd. which was still being managed by direct descendant Graeme White when the business was sold in 1970.
Clifford Craig and Edith Craig
Clifford Craig was a surgeon, radiologist, collector, conservationist and author, he came to Tasmania as Surgeon-Superintendent of the Launceston General Hospital in 1926.
Clifford Craig was born at Box Hill, Victoria, on 3 August 1896, the son of Walter Joseph and Jane Craig. He was educated at a small private school at Box Hill School, then at Scotch College, Melbourne. After serving in the Australian Imperial Forces in the Middle East from 1916 to 1919 he studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1924. He was Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital 1924-1925, then Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Children’s Hospital 1925-1926.
Clifford Craig
In 1926 Cllifford gained the senior degree of Doctor of Medicine and that year was appointed Surgeon-Superintendent at the Launceston General Hospital (LGH). He became a Master of Surgery in 1930 and received the Diploma of Diagnostic Radiology in 1954. Dr Craig entered private practice in 1931, was honorary surgeon at the LGH from 1932 to 1941, then reappointed Surgeon-Superintendent at the LGH in 1941. Following a restructure of the Surgeon-Superintendent position, he was Director of Surgery from 1949 to 1951 when a soap allergy affected his hands. He became a Radiologist, retiring from medical practice in 1977. He was a member of the LGH Board of Management for some years. He served as President of Rotary International Launceston, the Medical Council of Tasmania, the National Trust of Australia (Tasmania) and the Australian Cancer Society.
Dr Craig received a number of honours: Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), Fellow of the Australian Medical Association, Life Member of the Australasian College of Radiologists and Gold Medal of the Australian Cancer Society. The Clifford Craig Medical Research Trust in Launceston was named in his honour.
In 1927 he married Edith Nance Bulley and they had a daughter, Jane, and two sons, John and Warren. From 1939 the family lived at “Beulah”, 21 High Street, Launceston. After his marriage Dr Craig began collecting early colonial furniture. Later he became interested in acquiring old Tasmanian books and related items, prints and paintings and wrote a number of books and articles on these subjects. He also wrote journal articles on aspects of medicine and a history of the LGH. Clifford Craig died on 5 September 1986 at Launceston.
Books written by Clifford Craig:
Hospital Technical Procedures, 1927
Entally National House Hadspen, Tasmania: catalogue of contents, 1955
The Engravers of Van Diemen’s Land, 1961
First Hundred Years 1863-1963: Launceston General Hospital, 1963
Old Tasmanian Prints prepared in Great Britain, Europe and on the Mainland of Australia, 1964
Early Colonial Furniture in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, 1972
The Van Diemen’s Land Edition of the Pickwick Papers: a general and bibliographical study with some notes on Henry Dowling, 1973
Mr Punch in Tasmania: colonial politics in cartoons, 1866-1879, 1980
More Old Tasmanian Prints, 1984
Notes on Tasmaniana, 1987 (published posthumously)
Clifford came to Launceston General Hospital from Victoria in 1926 as Surgeon-Superintendent. He was just 30 years old. The hospital was just beginning to recover from a damaging eight-year dispute between the government and the British Medical Association, leading to the withdrawal of most doctors from Tasmanian hospitals. Under Clifford’s direction, the hospital became a highly respected institution. Working with an enthusiastic band of Launceston doctors he began a new era of clinical practice at the hospital. Over the next 60 years would leave a highly indelible mark on Tasmania and the broader medical community.
This included initiating several techniques in number of different areas of surgery and a programme of new specialised services at the hospital including eye surgery, gynaecology, thoracic surgery and radiology. He also helped establish Tasmania’s first post-graduate medical training in Launceston, which was attended by doctors from all over the state. While he excelled in surgery, in 1951 at the age of 55 Dr Craig retired from practice of surgery to begin a new phase of his career in the relatively new science of radiology, where he became nationally recognised. He served the hospital for fifty years. He was distinguished as a hospital administrator, an outstanding surgeon and teacher, a radiologist and even a historian. This included more than 70 contributions to medical and scientific journals and eight books.
Clifford was intimately involved in 1947 in the government purchasing Entally House as a National House. In 1960 his wife Edith, with Richard Green, founded the National Trust in Tasmania, to allow the purchase of Franklin House. Craig was foremost in raising community awareness to the value and beauty of Tasmania’s early colonial buildings, and was chairman of the Trust, 1963-72.
In 1992 the Clifford Craig Medical Research Trust was established to raise funds for medical research. In its first decade it raised $4.5 million and funded over forty research projects, and opened a large research centre at the Launceston General Hospital.
Edit Craig established the National Trust of Australia (Tasmania), and published the book Early Houses of Northern Tasmania.
Early Houses of Northern Tasmania, Edith Craig