![]() ![]() ![]() On Balmain was one of the signatories of the proceedings of the first Settlers Meeting held on the island. How well Balmain had known her in Sydney is not known, but they formed a de facto relationship that resulted in the birth of a daughter named Ann, on Norfolk Island in May 1794. At fifteen years of age, she was one of the youngest convicts on the First Fleet, sailing on the Lady Penrhyn. She had been a servant in London and sentenced to seven years' transportation in February 1786 for stealing from her employer. On the same ship was a young convict girl Margaret Dawson. The spear was then extracted." Phillip expressed his appreciation by appointing him to the post of Surgeon to the Norfolk Island Colony.īalmain arrived at Norfolk Island in November 1791. but Mr Balmain made us all happy by confidently assuring the governor he did not apprehend any fatal consequences from the wound. On his examining the wound, the governor desired him candidly to tell him how many hours he had to settle his affairs. Henry Waterhouse described the operation: "We got up within two hours to Sydney Cove, when the surgeons were immediately sent for and Mr Balmain attended with his instruments. Balmain skillfully removed the broken spear which was protruding through the shoulder and dressed the wound. ![]() In September 1790 Governor Arthur Phillip was speared in the shoulder by an Aboriginal man named Willemering at the place he named Manly. The treatment of the convicts had been so harsh that they were confronted with large numbers of sick and dying people, and the death rate rose alarmingly over a two-month period. The arrival of the Second Fleet in mid-1790 threw up new challenges for Balmain and the other surgeons. When White was absent from the settlement, Balmain found himself in charge of the makeshift hospital, stocked with only rudimentary supplies, and assisted by untrained convict personnel. In December 1788 Balmain recorded that a convict had died from 'want of sustenance'. The early settlement suffered from severe lack of food. ![]() Ralph Clark commented "it would not have rested there had the governor not taken the matter in hand and convinced the two sons of Aescalipius that it was much better to draw blood with the point of their lance from the arm of their patients than to do it with pistol balls from each other." On arrival at Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour, the surgeons had the difficult task of attending to the sick in tents while supervising the construction of emergency timber hospital huts.īy August 1788 tensions between Balmain and the principal surgeon, John White, became so great that they fought a duel with pistols in which Balmain received a small flesh wound in the right thigh. On the voyage Balmain delivered the Fleet's first child.Īssistant Surgeon in New South Wales He sailed as surgeon on the convict ship Alexander. Before the fleet sailed, Balmain correctly diagnosed a prevalent convict illness at Portsmouth. Eleven ships, including six transports, carried 772 convicts, officers, marines, crews, and some wives and children, travelled more than 10,000 miles (16,000 km) to reach the unknown shore. On 21 October 1786 Balmain applied to join the group of officers to establish the new colony in New South Wales and was appointed third assistant surgeon to the principal surgeon, John White. Next year he entered the Royal Navy to train as a Surgeon's Mate.įrom November 1784 he served on Nautilus during a survey of the Das Voltas region of South West Africa ( Namibia) which the British government was considering as a possible destination for the convicts then overcrowding British prisons and hulks. Little is known of his early life but in 1779 he was enrolled as a medical student at Edinburgh University. 1714), tenant farmer, and his second wife, Jane Henderson. William Balmain (2 February 1762 – 17 November 1803) was a Scottish-born naval surgeon and civil administrator who sailed as an assistant surgeon with the First Fleet to establish the first European settlement in Australia, and later to take up the appointment of the principal surgeon, for New South Wales.īalmain was born at Balhepburn in the Parish of Rhynd, Perthshire, Scotland, to Alexander Balmain (b.
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