William Wyatt

William Wyatt

William Wyatt (* 1804 in Plymouth , Devon , Great Britain , † June 10, 1886 in Adelaide , South Australia , Australia ) was a surgeon , landowner, civil servant and Protector of Aborigines .

At the age of 16 he was trained as a surgeon and was licensed to the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries in London and as a surgeon in a large hospital pharmacy. In 1828 he was accepted into the Royal College of Surgeons and opened a private practice in Plymouth. In Plymouth he was curator of the Museum of the Literary and Scientific Institution , studied zoology and other sciences related to medical science.

In 1836 he applied unsuccessfully for a position in Australia. Nevertheless, he immigrated with his wife in February 1837 to Adelaide , where he acquired land. He later bought more land around Port Lincoln . He did not practice as a surgeon, despite claiming that he performed the first leg amputation in the area. He was named Protector of Aborigines in 1837 , as well as urban and colonial forensic medicine . A year later he became a justice of the peace, a member of a local school society and founded the South Australian Club . As a protector he could do little for the Aborigines , since this office had little authority and little power. He was often reprimanded for his commitment to the interests of the Aborigines, and finally he resigned from this position in 1839.

As the demand for land developed rapidly, he earned his income by selling land. During the Depression of the 1840s, Wyatt continued to trade in land and became a member of the Medical Board in 1844 , of which he was secretary until his death.

He is involved with Trinity Church , Collegiate School of St Peter and for immigrants and became director of the Colonial Railway Co .. In the 1850s he took a lead in the establishment of social and community institutions such as the South Australian Institute , Acclimatization Society , Botanic Gardens , Royal Society and Society of Arts . In 1851 he was appointed South Australia's first school inspector.

Wyatt published a monograph on Certain Crustacea Entomostraca 1879 and Some account of the manners and superstitions of the Adelaide and Encounter Bay Aboriginal tribes in 1883 . In: JD Woods et al .: Native Tribes of South Australia . William Wyatt died in Adelaide in 1886.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ adb.edu.au : Dictionary of Australian: Alan Rendell: Wyatt, William (1804–1886) , in English, accessed March 28, 2012