Truby King
Sir Truby King CMG | |
---|---|
Born | Frederic Truby King 1 April 1858 New Plymouth, New Zealand |
Died | 10 February 1938 Wellington, New Zealand | (aged 79)
Occupation(s) | Bank clerk, asylum superintendent, child health reformer |
Known for | Founder of Plunket Society |
Parents |
|
Relatives | Newton King (brother) |
Sir Frederic Truby King
Early life
King was born in
Medical appointments
In 1887, while still in Scotland, King was appointed resident surgeon at both the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Glasgow Royal Infirmary.[2] Returning to New Zealand he became Medical Superintendent of the Wellington General Hospital from 1888 to 1889.[4] By 1889 he was in Dunedin as Medical Superintendent at the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum and as a lecturer in mental diseases at the University of Otago.[2]
At Seacliff he introduced better diets for patients, more discipline for staff and improvements to the hospital farm.[2] The 'villa' style of treatment, with smaller and more open wards, was also one of his innovations. These reforms and King's own intransigence to those who opposed them led to a Commission of Inquiry, which completely vindicated his methods.
Developing interest in infant care and nutrition
Over the next eight years, King had interests in
Plunket Society
It is the establishment of the
King's methods to teach mothers domestic hygiene and childcare were strongly promoted through his first book on mothercare, Feeding and Care of Baby, and via a network of specially trained
His methods were controversial. In 1914 the physician Agnes Elizabeth Lloyd Bennett publicly opposed his stance that higher education for women was detrimental to their maternal functions and hence to the human race.[7] He also excited controversy during his efforts to export his methods to Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, with particular debate associated with his views on infant feeding formulas. He believed in "humanized" milk with the protein reduced to 1.4% to match breast milk, against the general paediatric consensus at the time in favour of high protein feeds.[8]
The work of the Plunket Society was credited with lowering infant mortality in New Zealand from 88 per thousand in 1907 to 32 per thousand over the next thirty years, though it has since been argued that this was due less to its specific methods than to its general raising of awareness of childcare.[8]
Public service
King was appointed to represent New Zealand in 1913 at the Child Welfare Conference in London and was invited to assist in the establishment of a child public health service in Britain. In 1917 the former patron of the Plunket Society,
Following the First World War he was one of the British representatives at the Inter-allied Red Cross Conference and travelled through Europe for the War Victims Relief Committee.
Back in New Zealand, by 1921, King became Director of Child Welfare in the Department of Health and by 1925 also Inspector-General of Mental Hospitals. Until his retirement in 1927, he continued to develop and organise mental hospital services in New Zealand. His work was recognised by the award of a
Later years
King died in Wellington on 10 February 1938. He was the first private citizen in New Zealand to be given a state funeral.[11]
Twenty years later, he was the first New Zealander to feature on a New Zealand postage stamp.[11]
His babycare method continued in popularity, finding favour in post-war Britain at least until the 1950s.[12]
It featured, controversially, in the 2007 Channel 4 documentary series, Bringing Up Baby, which compared it with the 1960s Benjamin Spock and the 1970s Continuum concept.[12]
Legacy
Four streets in New Zealand are named after King: Truby King Street in the New Plymouth suburb of Merrilands, Truby King Street in Rolleston, Truby King Crescent in the Dunedin suburb of Liberton, and Truby King Drive in Waikouaiti.
Truby King Recreation Reserve: A public nature reserve located in Seacliff
Truby King Park, in Melrose, Wellington, includes the Truby King Mausoleum.
In Australia a number of maternal childhood centres in the 20's, 30's, and 40's were named after Truby King such as Coburg and Dandenong (both in Melbourne).[13] One such centre, in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg is now a heritage listed building.[14]
References
- ^ "Death of an old Settler". The Star. No. 4630. 28 April 1893. p. 3. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h From the pen of F Truby King, Truby King Booklet Committee, Auckland, undated
- ^ a b New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. "Gordon, Eliza". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- OCLC 4179287.
- ^ a b Gene Dreaming: New Zealanders and Eugenics Archived 9 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Hilary Stace, Professional Historians' Association of New Zealand/Aotearoa (PHANZA), September 1997,
- ^ New Zealand's Infant Welfare Services and Maori, 1907–60 Archived 4 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Linda Bryder, Health and History, Volume 3, Number 1, 2001
- ^ Bennett, Agnes Elizabeth Lloyd (1872–1960), Australian Dictionary of Biography
- ^ a b Philippa Mein Smith, "King, Sir (Frederic) Truby (1858–1938)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 4 Nov 2007
- ^ Rowald, Katharina (17 December 2018). "'If We Are to Believe the Psychologists …': Medicine, Psychoanalysis and Breastfeeding in Britain, 1900–55". Medical History. 63 (1). Retrieved 9 March 2021.
- ^ "Official jubilee medals". Evening Post. 6 May 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
- ^ a b Nigel Benson, "Seacliff asylum's painful and haunting history" Otago Daily Times, Dunedin 27 January 2007
- ^ a b Frederic Truby King's Strict Routine Method, Channel 4 Bringing up Baby microsite
- ^ "Infant Welfare". The Dandenong Journal. Victoria, Australia. 17 March 1932. p. 8. Retrieved 11 June 2020 – via Trove.?
- ^ "Truby King Baby Health Centre". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Council Victoria. Retrieved 10 June 2020.