Walter Hadwen


Walter Robert Hadwen was an English general practitioner, pharmaceutical chemist and writer. He was president of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection 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. She subsequently selected him as her successor.
He later became a member of the Plymouth Brethren and married Alice Harral in 1878; they had three children. 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. 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".
Hadwen was active in general practice until he died from a severe heart attack in 1932, age 78. 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. He was acquitted of all charges.

Selected publications

  • , 1895
  • The Case Against Vaccination, 1896
  • , 1902. Reprinted from "The Reformer," National Anti-Vaccination League: Gloucester.
  • , 1905
  • , 1907
  • A Correspondence in "The Daily Mail" Between Sir Victor Horsley and Walter R. Hadwen, on Vivisection
  • , 1908
  • , 1911
  • , 1914
  • , 1914
  • The Difficulties of Dr. Deguerre, 1926