Letter from Dr John Coverdale to his son Percy
Maker
John Coverdale
(1814 - 1896)
Date4 August 1875
Object number00028801
NameLetter
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 198 x 122 mm, 0.001 kg
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionA letter to Prin (Percy Coverdale) from Pa (Dr John Coverdale) regarding events at Port Arthur and in the colony in general. Dr John Coverdale was at this time the Civil Commandant and medical officer of Port Arthur, Tasmania.
In this letter Dr Coverdale talks of plant cuttings taken from the Commandant's cottage at Port Arthur. The gardens here were developed early in the European settlement’s history and successive officials and their wives maintained and contributed to their development, striving for a sense of British order and culture in a harsh setting and surrounded by prisoners.
HistoryDr John Coverdale was initially a ship's surgeon serving on two separate troop voyages from England to India. He later acted in the role on the immigrant ship PERTHSHIRE to Hobart in 1837 on which he was also an immigrant.
Dr Coverdale, as District Surgeon, established a practice in Richmond in 1840 which ran for 20 years before he was assigned as Superintendent of the Queen's Asylum for Orphans in Hobart in 1865. While there it is said he made general improvements and economised enough to impress the government which later sent him to Port Arthur in 1874. As Civil Commandant and medical officer, Coverdale became responsible for closing down the penal establishment in 1877.
At almost 60 years of age and a widower after the death of his wife Anne, Dr Coverdale was reassigned to the role of Superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane at the Cascades. That establishment was broken up in 1888 and Dr Coverdale, now 74, was forced to retire to his home 'Ivadene' at Moonah.
Although he played a significant role in the medical welfare of so many early Europeans in Tasmania, Dr John Coverdale was as remembered for his role in the 'Montagu Affair' which resulted in the dismissal of Sir John Franklin as Governor of Tasmania.SignificanceDr John Coverdale was a major medical and surgical figure in the history of Tasmania. From his arrival in Hobart in 1837, Dr Coverdale proceeded to serve in significant civil and medical positions throughout the colony for the next 60 years.
