Walter Hadwen

Walter Robert Hadwen (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.

Biography Walter Robert Hadwen was born in Woolwich on 3 August 1854. He began his career as a pharmacist in Highbridge, 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.Mitchell, Sally. (2004). Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press. p. 360.

He later became a member of the Plymouth Brethren and married Alice Harral in 1878; they had three children."Dr Walter Robert Hadwen". brethrenarchive.org. Retrieved 6 January 2022. Hadwen was a frequent speaker for the National Anti-Vaccination League. In 1896, he co-founded the London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial alongside William Tebb. Hadwen stated that the "modern germ theory is all bosh". In 1906 a presentation was given in honour of Hadwen at Charing Cross, the headquarters of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection. Hadwen was presented with a silver rose-bowl with the inscription "Presented to Walter R. Hadwen, Esq., M.D. by anti-vivisectionist friends as a token of their esteem and gratitude for his valuable services as a leader of the movement to abolish vivisection, August 16th, 1906". He was a speaker at the Fourth Triennial International Congress of the World League Against Vivisection held at Caxton Hall in 1909.

Hadwen was active in general practice until he died from a severe heart attack in 1932, age 78.Mills, Daniel S. (2010). The Encyclopedia of Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare. CABI. pp. 188-189. In his honour the Dr Hadwen Trust was founded in 1970 to fund exclusive non-animal techniques to replace animal experiments.

Hadwen's pamphlets on anti-vivisection are archived at the Special Collections Research Center in NC State University Libraries.

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."

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.The Times up to and including 30 October 1924. He was acquitted of all charges."Topics of the Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 December 2020.

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 Jennerism and Pasteurism, 1914 Experiments on Living Animals, Useless and Cruel, 1914 The Difficulties of Dr. Deguerre, 1926 (illustrated by Arthur Moreland)

Walter Hadwen

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