biographies

Mollison, Crawford Henry (1863 - 1949)

M.B., Ch.B. (Melb.) M.R.C.S. (Eng)

Born
August 1863
Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Died
6 April 1949
Occupation
Medical practitioner and Pathologist

Details

Transcription of item written by Dr Colin Macdonald and published in "The Book of Remembrance", The Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, 1956.


CRAWFORD HENRY MOLLISON
(1892 - 1947)

Crawford Henry Mollison was born in August 1863 at Bendigo, where his father, also Crawford Mollison (an Englishman from Hastings, Kent, who had come to Australia in 1838), was Assistant Commissioner of Goldfields. At the age of eight, young Crawford was sent on a "windjammer" to relatives in England, and there attended a school in Tunbridge Wells. On returning to Victoria he entered Kew High School, long since defunct but then well known educationally and socially; it stood on the site of the present Trinity Grammar School in Charles Street, Kew, and its Headmaster was J. Henning Thompson. Later Mollison went to the Geelong Grammar School, at that time a small academy of fewer than 100 boys on the Barrabool Street Hill overlooking the Barwon River; but it was at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School he finally matriculated, to graduate M.B. (Melb.) in 1884. After two years as a resident medical officer at the Melbourne Hospital, he was in England taking the M.R.C.S. He also spent some months in Vienna studying dermatology at the Polyclinic under Hebra, for at this time he intended to become a dermatologist. However on returning to Melbourne he joined, for a year or two, Dr. Campbell White of Balaclava, in general practice. But from 1891 he devoted himself to the fields of pathology and forensic medicine in which he was to hold a supreme position in Victoria for fifty-five years.

In 1893 appointed as coroner’s surgeon, two years later lecturer in forensic medicine at the University of Melbourne, he was associated with the coroner’s office from 1891 until 1947 - forty-six years. In that long period he performed countless autopsies for a succession of coroners and was a highly important witness in numerous murders and other trials, including the Deeming case of 1895 and the "Pyjama Girl" case of 1944.

Mollison was generally regarded as a model witness, for he gave evidence clearly and concisely and at all times was scrupulously fair, remaining calm and unhurried. All the facts, as he knew them, whether favourable or otherwise, were placed before the court. He emphasized that he was an independent examiner, not acting in the interest of any party, but was there at the instance of the coroner to find all the relevant facts, to set them out fully, and as an expert, to give an opinion when asked; no advocate was ever successful in diverting Mollison from the factual evidence.

In 1889 he was appointed assistant pathologist to the Melbourne Hospital and in 1892 to the Women’s Hospital, following Mr. (afterwards Sir) George Syme. He did an immense amount of work in private practice and indeed for many years was the final Court of Appeal in macroscopic and microscopic problems. His gnomic and categorical reports, always to be relied on, were known throughout Australia.

In 1931 the Medico Legal Society of Victoria was formed, and it was decided that the president should, each alternate year, be a lawyer and a doctor. The first president was Mr. Justice Stewart McArthur, and by unanimous choice, Mollison was his successor.

Mollison’s services to the medical profession were outstanding. He became treasurer of the Medical Society of Victoria in 1891, continuing in that office on the amalgamation in 1908 of this Society with the Victorian Branch of the British Medical Association. His length of service constituted a record, for on his retirement in 1947 he had held office for fifty-five years. He resolutely declined the honour of Branch President, but on the occasion of his jubilee as Branch Treasurer, his portrait, painted by W.B. Mc Innes, was presented to him, and it now hangs in the B.M.A. Hall in Albert Street. The Federal Council awarded him the rare distinction of its gold medal.

For the first twenty-two years of the British Medical Insurance Company of Victoria he was Chairman of Directors, and played the major part in establishing this Company on a sound basis. For many years a member of the Medical Board of Victoria, he acted as its President for six years.

Mollison, although of such a quiet, retiring nature, enjoyed a wide circle of friends. He was a regular member of a weekly bridge four, never missed a Melbourne Cup, and loved cricket and the great games on the Melbourne Cricket Ground; he was surgeon to the Victorian Racing Club from 1890 to 1947. He played an excellent game of royal tennis, winning on several occasions the gold racquet and silver racquet of the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club. Whenever possible Sunday afternoon was reserved for lawn tennis.

This most delightful man, until the last of almost cherubic countenance, with rosy cheeks, pleasant smile and soft voice, was held in high regard by all who knew and worked with him over two generations.

Mollison’s name should always be remembered with honour at the Royal Women’s Hospital where he worked so faithfully for so long, for he was an outstanding figure both in pathological and medicolegal work and in devotion to the profession. Of necessity a public figure, he never sought the limelight. Quietness and simplicity were his dominant personal qualities, and his contributions to the ends of justice and the welfare of his fellows, unique.

He was thrice married, his second wife was the daughter of T.A.Browne ("Rolf Boldrewood") who wrote "Robbery Under Arms", published in 1881, a piece of effective melodrama constructed round the many stories of Australian bushrangers. Mollison died in Melbourne on 6th April 1949 in his eighty-sixth year.

Archival/Heritage Resources

Royal Women's Hospital Archives

  • Book of Remembrance, 1956 - 1975; Royal Women's Hospital Archives [ Details... ].

Prepared by: Robyn Waymouth

Created: 1 August 2006, Last modified: 26 November 2006