Dr Charles Brothers – A Psychiatrist in the Family.

Dr Charles Ronald David  Brothers was born  in the small farming community of North Motton, North-West Tasmania.

Jessie as a young woman.

Private Charles David Brothers

At left is his mother, born Jessie Violet Saltmarsh.  On the right is his father, Charles Brothers Snr, in uniform as a private in the Boer war.

Newly married to Jessie, Charles Snr died on November 25 19o4, aged only 26. It was felt that  months spent as a prisoner of war in South Africa had contributed to his death from dropsy and enlargement of the  liver. His funeral was one of the largest ever seen in North Motton, attended by some 450 people.  The pallbearers were  young men who had served with him in Tasmania’s  voluntary military service.

Jessie was pregnant when she was widowed, and she gave birth to their first child,  a son,  on January 15 1905. He was named Charles  in memory of the father he would never know.

Charles Snr. had not left a will, and because Jessie was only 2o at the time the estate was to be administered by his brother,  Albert Arthur Brothers. Three  bondsmen were appointed, including a member of the highly respected Ellis family.

In 1912, when Charles was seven, Jessie married prominent local farmer Herbert Allen,  a widower, with six young children. She loved her stepchildren  as if they were her own. I should point out that Herbert Allen was my paternal great uncle.

Young Charles was very bright.  He excelled at North Motton school and  in 1918  won a bursary to attend the Devonport High School. He went on to study medicine at Melbourne University, a remarkable achievement.  I’m not sure what the relationship was between the Brothers family and Jessie, but  there was court action to have Charles’  university fees paid  from his father’s estate.

In the early 1920’s trouble arose when the solicitor overseeing the estate on behalf of Albert Brothers died.  It was discovered that this solicitor had misappropriated the funds. The three bondsmen were required to pay Jessie the value of the estate and to carry on as ‘owners’ of what was technically now  an estate in name only.  However, there was good news in  1926 when dividends received from the dead solicitor’s estate were shared among the bondsmen.

The solicitor involved was never named. However, my research has led me to the discovery that it was almost certainly a man who took his own life. No doubt it was sensitivity towards his wife and family after the tragedy that led to the suppression of his name. For this reason, I won’t name him either.

DR CHARLES BROTHERS

Following his graduation Charles took up a residency at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.  In 1936  he returned to Tasmania,  becoming  Medical Superintendent at the Lachlan Park Mental Asylum at New Norfolk.

Dr Brothers around the time he returned to Tasmania

Charles Brothers and his family lived at historic Frascati House,  on the grounds of the Asylum.

Frascati House (Source – Willow Court History Group)

My great-uncle Arthur Singleton had been an inmate at the mental asylum for some years, are suffering shellshock in WWI. He had taken part in the dawn at landing at Gallipoli and went on to fight in France.

Private Arthur  Singleton in 1916 after being evacuated from Gallipoli.

The following is a letter by Arthur dated December 11, 1937.  It was addressed to Charles Brothers. The letter is reproduced here almost exactly  as written.  Arthur’s words are confused, but his meaning is painfully clear;

 Dr Brothers

Medical supertnder

Of  Dear hospital

New newnofork

Dear Sir

 I would be very glad to know what you are going to do for me to kindly oblige me the privilege to go home from this hospital. You know I have been here quite long enough. It is your place to see what you can do for me. I only want my rights and justices. I am prepared to meet you in any reason and insist on it to be [given] it with a justfull  right in whatever it may be and am ready to go into it with you. I hope you will be kind enough to do whatever lays in your power if possible, and I hope that I am not asking you too much to do. If so,  kindly let me know at your earliest convenience that you can, will you do this for me or not. Let me know at once, I am very anxious to know please all about it from your earliest possible convenience that you can. Kindly oblige, yours truly

A.W. Singleton.

Dr Brothers was an enlightened psychiatrist.  Records show that he did his best to organise a safe release for Arthur, but it was not to be. Treatment at that time was limited and ineffective. When released in the past Arthur had become a danger to himself, his loved ones, and the community. He died at the asylum in 1966, aged 74.

The odd thing is that Jessie was a close friend of Arthur’s sister Alice, my paternal grandmother. Alice  was the widow of Newman Allen, Herbert’s  brother. I hope these relationships make sense.

When Herbert died in 1938 Charles attended his stepfather’s funeral in Ulverstone. My father was one of his uncle’s  pallbearers.

Charles Brothers eventually returned to the mainland, where he  had an illustrious career. He died aged just 58 on October  3 1963. Jessie died two years later on Christmas Day 1965. She was 81.

I was often present when Jessie visited Grandma Allen in the  1950s and 60s. Oddly enough I never heard her mention her psychiatrist son Charles… nor his one-time patient, Grandma’s younger brother. This was no doubt because no-one in our family ever mentioned Arthur, due to the shame of mental illness. Jessie would have been sensitive to this situation, and the fact that Arthur was still  a patient. While growing up I barely knew he existed, let alone that  he was in a mental asylum.

Dr Charles Brothers in later life.

THE CAREER OF DR BROTHERS

FOR THE STORY OF CHARLES’ FATHER AND THE BOER WAR, CLICK HERE.

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