Beulah Residents
The people who have lived at Beulah House over the years
Charles Henry 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.
He married Miriam Dowle in Melbourne in 1856 and the couple had seven children between 1857 and 1869 and in 1874 made their home at the well-known High Street residence Beulah.
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 20 th 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.”
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
According to ‘Companion to Tasmanian History’ and the Clifford Craig Foundation website: Clifford was a surgeon, radiologist, collector, conservationist and author, he came to Tasmania as Surgeon-Superintendent of the Launceston General Hospital in 1926.
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. Dr Clifford Craig came to Launceston General Hospital from Victoria in 1926 as Surgeon-Superintendent. He was just 30 years old. Under Dr Craig’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.
Craig 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 1961 he became an author with the publication of The Engravers of Van Diemen’s Land, the first of eight books regarding early Tasmania. A collector of early colonial furniture, books and documents, he amassed large and outstanding collections, the auctions of which were memorable events.
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.
Clifford Craig