POLLEN, Henry
Born 1852; died 23 November 1918; buried 25 November 1918; age 65
Irish-born doctor Henry POLLEN contributed much in different roles over his career in Gisborne and Wellington. In the capital, his eye-catching former surgery and residence at 12 Boulcott Street is of continuing historical significance (albeit relocated to the corner with Willis Street, to accommodate the building of the Majestic Tower in 1991). He died in his house and surgery in 1918 after contracting influenza. His two adult daughters also caught it but survived.
Henry Pollen was born in Kingstown, County Dublin, Ireland in 1852 (i) and was educated at Kingstown, Rathsmines, and Middleton College, Cork; and Trinity College, Dublin. He would have known about life in New Zealand from his uncle, Daniel Pollen, another doctor.
He witnessed the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and took on various roles in the early life of post-Treaty New Zealand, including being government agent in Auckland after the capital’s shift to Wellington, Colonial Secretary under Vogel and Atkinson in the 1870s, and Premier for a short time in 1875/76, the only medical practitioner to have ever done so (ii). The Hon Dr Daniel Pollen spent his last years as an active member of the Legislative Council.
His nephew Henry qualified MB/MCh in medicine in Dublin in 1874/75 and migrated to New Zealand aboard the iron barque, the Hudson, arriving in Napier on 12 February 1875 with 204 immigrants and a collection of familiar British birds for release in New Zealand (iii). Two of his brothers reportedly came to New Zealand, though research for this story has not so far identified them (iv).
Henry first registered as a medical practitioner in Gisborne in April 1876. The next year he married Katherine Jane BOURKE, (born in 1854) the daughter of local resident, Peter Bourke, MA. He had migrated in 1840 from County Mayo, Ireland (v).
Henry and Katherine had two daughters: Effie Henrietta Dorothea born in 1879 and Dorothy Desmond born in 1881. Dr Pollen took up superintending roles at Cook Hospital and the Gisborne prison and became Port Health Officer for Gisborne in 1884. The following year he returned to England for a visit and took his MD from Trinity College in Dublin.
In 1890 he moved his family to Wellington, perhaps because it offered wider professional opportunities. He continued in private practice, at first living at 84 Manners Street, and then took up an appointment as surgeon to the Antipodean Lodge of Oddfellows in Wellington the year he arrived.
In 1894 the death of his wife Katherine aged 40 must have been a large blow. She was the first occupant of the Pollen family grave in plot 3F of the Church of England section of Karori Cemetery, where the headstone reads ‘God is Love’.
Perhaps in a bid to prepare for a new phase of his life, in 1901 Henry purchased land at 12 Boulcott Street from William McGill and developed a purpose-built surgery for his medical practice. It was part of his domestic residence which he still shared with his adult daughters. Employing the architect William Turnbull, the iconic house was erected in the Edwardian domestic manner with French Renaissance motifs such as the Mansard roof and quoining, combined with elements of the High Victorian Gothic style (vi).
Born 1852; died 23 November 1918; buried 25 November 1918; age 65
Irish-born doctor Henry POLLEN contributed much in different roles over his career in Gisborne and Wellington. In the capital, his eye-catching former surgery and residence at 12 Boulcott Street is of continuing historical significance (albeit relocated to the corner with Willis Street, to accommodate the building of the Majestic Tower in 1991). He died in his house and surgery in 1918 after contracting influenza. His two adult daughters also caught it but survived.
Henry Pollen was born in Kingstown, County Dublin, Ireland in 1852 (i) and was educated at Kingstown, Rathsmines, and Middleton College, Cork; and Trinity College, Dublin. He would have known about life in New Zealand from his uncle, Daniel Pollen, another doctor.
He witnessed the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and took on various roles in the early life of post-Treaty New Zealand, including being government agent in Auckland after the capital’s shift to Wellington, Colonial Secretary under Vogel and Atkinson in the 1870s, and Premier for a short time in 1875/76, the only medical practitioner to have ever done so (ii). The Hon Dr Daniel Pollen spent his last years as an active member of the Legislative Council.
His nephew Henry qualified MB/MCh in medicine in Dublin in 1874/75 and migrated to New Zealand aboard the iron barque, the Hudson, arriving in Napier on 12 February 1875 with 204 immigrants and a collection of familiar British birds for release in New Zealand (iii). Two of his brothers reportedly came to New Zealand, though research for this story has not so far identified them (iv).
Henry first registered as a medical practitioner in Gisborne in April 1876. The next year he married Katherine Jane BOURKE, (born in 1854) the daughter of local resident, Peter Bourke, MA. He had migrated in 1840 from County Mayo, Ireland (v).
Henry and Katherine had two daughters: Effie Henrietta Dorothea born in 1879 and Dorothy Desmond born in 1881. Dr Pollen took up superintending roles at Cook Hospital and the Gisborne prison and became Port Health Officer for Gisborne in 1884. The following year he returned to England for a visit and took his MD from Trinity College in Dublin.
In 1890 he moved his family to Wellington, perhaps because it offered wider professional opportunities. He continued in private practice, at first living at 84 Manners Street, and then took up an appointment as surgeon to the Antipodean Lodge of Oddfellows in Wellington the year he arrived.
In 1894 the death of his wife Katherine aged 40 must have been a large blow. She was the first occupant of the Pollen family grave in plot 3F of the Church of England section of Karori Cemetery, where the headstone reads ‘God is Love’.
Perhaps in a bid to prepare for a new phase of his life, in 1901 Henry purchased land at 12 Boulcott Street from William McGill and developed a purpose-built surgery for his medical practice. It was part of his domestic residence which he still shared with his adult daughters. Employing the architect William Turnbull, the iconic house was erected in the Edwardian domestic manner with French Renaissance motifs such as the Mansard roof and quoining, combined with elements of the High Victorian Gothic style (vi).
Dr Henry Pollen's residence at 12 Boulcott Street before its move and re-orientation to accommodate the building of the Majestic Tower
Copyright: Heritage New Zealand. Date: 1/07/1987 (used with permission)
Copyright: Heritage New Zealand. Date: 1/07/1987 (used with permission)
In 1902 Henry took on the role of Port Health Officer for Wellington, the same year he married again, this time to Sibyl Amy HUNTER-BROWN of Nelson. However, she died in 1908, aged only 38. There were no further children. Sibyl was buried in a Wakapuaka Cemetery, Nelson family grave (vii).
In his medical practice Dr Pollen also acted for other friendly societies and was medical referee for the Australasian Mutual Provident Society and the Government Life Insurance Department. He was also a physician at Wellington Hospital and the city’s Port Health Officer for some years, a member of the Military Pensions Board, and a church warden of St Mark’s city parish. In 1918 he was president of the NZ Branch of the British Medical Association (viii).
Late that year newspapers reported that he was thought to have caught influenza while working as Port Health Officer, inspecting vessels from overseas (ix). Whether or not that was the case (as he must also have been in constant contact with patients and others with the infection), both daughters also contracted the flu, Effie seriously.
Henry was 66, outside the key age range most affected by the outbreak, but nevertheless died of influenza and pleurisy at home. He was buried 2 days later with his first wife in Church of England plot 3F in Karori Cemetery (x).
The words ‘Henry POLLEN, M. D. 1852-1918. Amaverunt-Amantur’ (Latin meaning ‘They loved, they are loved’) were added to the family headstone and a memorial brass plaque installed in St Peter’s Church in Willis Street by the time of the fiftieth anniversary of its consecration in 1929 (xi).
An obituary in the Free Lance on 28 November 1918 recorded his loss:
‘In Dr. Henry Pollen, the Empire City loses its very popular Port Health Officer at the age of 65. His dapper, well-groomed straight little figure will never more be seen at the water-side. His urbane courtesy, and his readiness to oblige made him a great favourite…he had all the refinement, the precision of speech, the genial warmth of manner, and the delicate brogue which make the educated Dublin man or woman such delightful acquaintances…’
In his medical practice Dr Pollen also acted for other friendly societies and was medical referee for the Australasian Mutual Provident Society and the Government Life Insurance Department. He was also a physician at Wellington Hospital and the city’s Port Health Officer for some years, a member of the Military Pensions Board, and a church warden of St Mark’s city parish. In 1918 he was president of the NZ Branch of the British Medical Association (viii).
Late that year newspapers reported that he was thought to have caught influenza while working as Port Health Officer, inspecting vessels from overseas (ix). Whether or not that was the case (as he must also have been in constant contact with patients and others with the infection), both daughters also contracted the flu, Effie seriously.
Henry was 66, outside the key age range most affected by the outbreak, but nevertheless died of influenza and pleurisy at home. He was buried 2 days later with his first wife in Church of England plot 3F in Karori Cemetery (x).
The words ‘Henry POLLEN, M. D. 1852-1918. Amaverunt-Amantur’ (Latin meaning ‘They loved, they are loved’) were added to the family headstone and a memorial brass plaque installed in St Peter’s Church in Willis Street by the time of the fiftieth anniversary of its consecration in 1929 (xi).
An obituary in the Free Lance on 28 November 1918 recorded his loss:
‘In Dr. Henry Pollen, the Empire City loses its very popular Port Health Officer at the age of 65. His dapper, well-groomed straight little figure will never more be seen at the water-side. His urbane courtesy, and his readiness to oblige made him a great favourite…he had all the refinement, the precision of speech, the genial warmth of manner, and the delicate brogue which make the educated Dublin man or woman such delightful acquaintances…’
Dr Henry Pollen from the ‘Free Lance’ 29 November 1918
On 23 November 1918 the Poverty Bay Herald recorded that Dr Pollen had ‘greatly endear[ed] himself to the community by his kindliness of heart and exceedingly sympathetic nature’.
Early the next year his daughters auctioned his surgical instruments, medical works and general literature (xii) before selling the house to another surgeon, Eric Lachlan MARCHANT.
Effie Pollen was the life-long companion of the respected New Zealand poet, Mary Ursula BETHELL. While they may have lived together in the Wellington Pollen home for a time, its sale perhaps enabled them to later purchase Rise Cottage in Christchurch’s Westenra Terrace on the Cashmere Hills. They lived there until Effie’s death from a brain haemorrhage in 1934. She was 55 and had worked in various circles to advance the interests of girls and women. She was also buried in the Karori Cemetery family plot.
Henry’s younger daughter Dorothy moved to England where she died in 1963, based in St Leonards-on-Sea.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot: 3 F
Sources:
(i) 1852 is the year given by his daughters on his headstone though 1853 is also given by the authors of Henry’s entry in endnote ii.
(ii) Dr Daniel Pollen died in 18 May 1896. https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/external/WrightSt-Clair-HistoriaNuncVivat.pdf
(iii) Ibid re Henry Pollen. (Brett; 1: 178 is the source of the bird information)
(iv) ‘Free Lance’ 28 November 1918, page 4.
(v) Peter Bourke was born in 1811 and received his MA from Trinity College, Dublin. He was a JP for many years and according to an obituary in the Poverty Bay Herald’ of 13 March 1883 (p2), had lost property in the first Irish famine and come to New Zealand in 1840 where he became the Bay of Islands Commissariat to the 58th and 65th regiments, (and later was the chief postmaster in Napier) retiring in 1873. He was subsequently a member of the Licensing Court in Poverty Bay. With wife Dorathea Frances or Francis Desmond, the Bourkes had three daughters and five sons. Only Peter Henry, b1856; Charles O’Donel, b1862; Edward Fitzgerald, b1865; and Desmond Gerald, b1869 have birth records that appear in NZ BDM online but parents’ probates make it clear that there were also older brother John born 1849 (died 1891), and sisters Emma Mary (DUNLOP) born 1853, Katherine Jane born 1854, and Dorothea Francis born 1860, died 1877 with whom Peter requested he be buried in Napier when he died in 1883. Pollen’s mother-in -law Dora Bourke spent time in Wellington where she appears on the 1896 electoral roll at 84 Manners St, the Pollen family home before her death in 1904. The Karori cemetery Pollen headstone remembers her with the words ‘Mother 1826-1904’.
(vi) See www.heritage.org.nz for more on the architectural significance of the house and its links in style to other extant Wellington buildings. From 1929 the house was Alfred de Barthe Brandon’s residence. Despite its relocation late in the twentieth century to accommodate the Majestic Tower, the building remains an iconic feature of Wellington’s cityscape today and is the site of a restaurant.
(vii) Sybil was one of five daughters and four sons born to Ellinor Jane ABRAHAM and Charles Hunter BROWN who had married in 1861 and
settled in Nelson in 1866 in ‘Long Look Out’, which had been the home of J C Richmond, artist and politician. Charles had been a member of the first New Zealand parliament of 1854, a Māori scholar, and active Anglican and promoter of the Church Missionary Society (see contribution by Helen Whelan on youngest daughter Lucy Malanta Hunter-Brown in ‘Nelson Historical Society Journal’, vol 6, issue 1, 1996 and Charles’ obituary in ‘Nelson Evening Mail’ 28 December 1898). Sybil had been living in London in 1901, see England Census.
(viii) Taken from www.heritage.org.nz
(ix) The ‘Press’ 9 November 1918.
(x) See Henry Pollen obituary in ‘NZMJ’ 1918; 17: 228.
(xi) ‘Evening Post’ 21 December 1929, page 11.
(xii) ‘Evening Post’ 15 February 1919, page 5.
Early the next year his daughters auctioned his surgical instruments, medical works and general literature (xii) before selling the house to another surgeon, Eric Lachlan MARCHANT.
Effie Pollen was the life-long companion of the respected New Zealand poet, Mary Ursula BETHELL. While they may have lived together in the Wellington Pollen home for a time, its sale perhaps enabled them to later purchase Rise Cottage in Christchurch’s Westenra Terrace on the Cashmere Hills. They lived there until Effie’s death from a brain haemorrhage in 1934. She was 55 and had worked in various circles to advance the interests of girls and women. She was also buried in the Karori Cemetery family plot.
Henry’s younger daughter Dorothy moved to England where she died in 1963, based in St Leonards-on-Sea.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot: 3 F
Sources:
(i) 1852 is the year given by his daughters on his headstone though 1853 is also given by the authors of Henry’s entry in endnote ii.
(ii) Dr Daniel Pollen died in 18 May 1896. https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/external/WrightSt-Clair-HistoriaNuncVivat.pdf
(iii) Ibid re Henry Pollen. (Brett; 1: 178 is the source of the bird information)
(iv) ‘Free Lance’ 28 November 1918, page 4.
(v) Peter Bourke was born in 1811 and received his MA from Trinity College, Dublin. He was a JP for many years and according to an obituary in the Poverty Bay Herald’ of 13 March 1883 (p2), had lost property in the first Irish famine and come to New Zealand in 1840 where he became the Bay of Islands Commissariat to the 58th and 65th regiments, (and later was the chief postmaster in Napier) retiring in 1873. He was subsequently a member of the Licensing Court in Poverty Bay. With wife Dorathea Frances or Francis Desmond, the Bourkes had three daughters and five sons. Only Peter Henry, b1856; Charles O’Donel, b1862; Edward Fitzgerald, b1865; and Desmond Gerald, b1869 have birth records that appear in NZ BDM online but parents’ probates make it clear that there were also older brother John born 1849 (died 1891), and sisters Emma Mary (DUNLOP) born 1853, Katherine Jane born 1854, and Dorothea Francis born 1860, died 1877 with whom Peter requested he be buried in Napier when he died in 1883. Pollen’s mother-in -law Dora Bourke spent time in Wellington where she appears on the 1896 electoral roll at 84 Manners St, the Pollen family home before her death in 1904. The Karori cemetery Pollen headstone remembers her with the words ‘Mother 1826-1904’.
(vi) See www.heritage.org.nz for more on the architectural significance of the house and its links in style to other extant Wellington buildings. From 1929 the house was Alfred de Barthe Brandon’s residence. Despite its relocation late in the twentieth century to accommodate the Majestic Tower, the building remains an iconic feature of Wellington’s cityscape today and is the site of a restaurant.
(vii) Sybil was one of five daughters and four sons born to Ellinor Jane ABRAHAM and Charles Hunter BROWN who had married in 1861 and
settled in Nelson in 1866 in ‘Long Look Out’, which had been the home of J C Richmond, artist and politician. Charles had been a member of the first New Zealand parliament of 1854, a Māori scholar, and active Anglican and promoter of the Church Missionary Society (see contribution by Helen Whelan on youngest daughter Lucy Malanta Hunter-Brown in ‘Nelson Historical Society Journal’, vol 6, issue 1, 1996 and Charles’ obituary in ‘Nelson Evening Mail’ 28 December 1898). Sybil had been living in London in 1901, see England Census.
(viii) Taken from www.heritage.org.nz
(ix) The ‘Press’ 9 November 1918.
(x) See Henry Pollen obituary in ‘NZMJ’ 1918; 17: 228.
(xi) ‘Evening Post’ 21 December 1929, page 11.
(xii) ‘Evening Post’ 15 February 1919, page 5.