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Walter Robert Hadwen MRCS MRCP (3 August 1854 – 27 December 1932) was an English general practitioner, pharmaceutical chemist and writer. He was 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 Hadwen MRCS MRCP
Born	Walter Robert Hadwen 3 August 1854 Woolwich, England
Died	27 December 1932 (1932-12-28) (aged 78) Gloucester, England
Alma mater	Bristol University
Occupation	General practitioner pharmaceutical chemist writer anti-vivisection and anti-vaccination activist
Spouse(s)	Alice Harral ​ (m. 1878)​
Children	3

Biography

Walter Robert Hadwen was born in Woolwich on 3 August 1854.[1] He 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 the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection 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.[2]

He later became a member of the Plymouth Brethren and married Alice Harral in 1878; they had three children.[3] Hadwen 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".[4]

Hadwen was active in general practice until he died from a severe heart attack in 1932, age 78.[5] In his honour the Dr Hadwen Trust was founded in 1970 to fund exclusive non-animal techniques to replace animal experiments.[5]

Vegetarianism

Hadwen became a vegetarian in his early twenties when taking a bet from a fellow student that he could live six months without eating meat. His bet was successful and he stated that "For my part I am quite satisfied with my trial of vegetarianism, and it would take more than mortal power to persuade me once again to make my stomach a graveyard for the purpose of burying dead bodies in."[5]

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.[6] He was acquitted of all charges.[7][8]

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

Wikisource has original works by or about: Walter Hadwen

References

Further reading

• Who Was Dr Hadwen Biography at Dr Hadwen Trust.
• Walter Hadwen Biography by Walter Hawkins.
• 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.

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