Walter Hadwen

Walter Robert Hadwen MD MRCS MRCP (3 August 1854, Woolwich – 27 December 1932) was a Gloucester general practitioner and pharmaceutical chemist, president of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), and an anti-vaccination campaigner known for his denial of the germ theory of disease.

Walter Robert Hadwen
Born	3 August 1854 Woolwich
Died	27 December 1932 (aged 78) Gloucester
Occupation	Physician, pharmaceutical chemist, writer

Biography

Hadwen began his career as a pharmacist in Clapham then Somerset, then subsequently trained as a doctor at Bristol University. After qualifying, he moved to Gloucester in 1896. Hadwen was recruited as a member of BUAV by its founder and then president Frances Power Cobbe who hired a private investigator to assess his credentials (he was a vegetarian and total abstainer, had a reputation as a "firebrand" orator and was held in "high local esteem"). She subsequently selected him as her successor.[1]

He joined the Plymouth Brethren as an adult. He was a frequent speaker for the National Anti-Vaccination League. He was also a member of the London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial (founded in 1896).

Hadwen stated that the "modern germ theory is all bosh".[2]

Manslaughter trial

In 1924, having applied his rejection of the germ theory of disease, and his refusal to use diphtheria anti-serum produced by inoculation of animals to the treatment of Nellie Burnham, a young girl, she died and he was tried for manslaughter by criminal medical negligence.[3] He was acquitted of all charges.[4][5]

Selected publications

• Is Flesh-Eating Harmful?, 1895
• The Case Against Vaccination, 1896
• Smallpox at Gloucester: A Reply to Dr. Coupland’s Report, 1902. Reprinted from "The Reformer," National Anti-Vaccination League: Gloucester.
• Vivisection: Its Follies and Cruelties, 1905
• A Debate on Should Vivisection be Abolished?, 1907
• A Correspondence in "The Daily mail" Between Sir Victor Horsley and Walter R. Hadwen, on Vivisection (1908)
• A Debate on Is Vivisection Immoral, Cruel, Useless and Unscientific? (1908)
• Dr. Walter Robert Hadwen's Works, 1908
• A Vivisection Controversy, 1911
• Experiments on Living Animals, Useless and Cruel, 1914
• The Difficulties of Dr. Deguerre, 1926

See also

• Vaccine hesitancy

References

1. Mitchell, Sally. (2004). Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press. p. 360. ISBN 0-8139-2271-2
2. "Verdict of Manslaughter Against Dr. Hadwen by Coroner's Jury". Journal of the American Medical Association. 83 (14): 1090. 1924.
3. The Times up to and including 30 October 1924.
4. "Acquittal of Dr. Hadwen". Journal of the American Medical Association. 83 (20): 1601. 1924.
5. "Topics of the Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 December 2020.

Further reading

• Who Was Dr Hadwen Biography at Dr Hadwen Trust.
• Bodily Matters: The Anti-Vaccination Movement in England, 1853-1907, Nadja Durbach, 2005, Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-3423-2
• Hadwen of Gloucester: Man, Medico, Martyr, by Beatrice E. Kidd and M. Edith Richards, 1933, John Murray, London.
• Obituary, The Times, Saturday, 25 February 1933 John Murray, London, 1933.