Dr. (Horace) Wellesley Hannah

(Horace) Wellesley Hannah was born to John Hannah and Catherine (Kitty) on 29/3/1913. The family Lived in “LLanellan” on top of Heidelberg Hill. His bachelor uncle Bill lived next door and owned all the land where the Austin Hospital is now situated.

Wellesley studied at Scotch College and then did Medicine at Melbourne University. At school and University, he excelled in running, winning the school championship and the Australian Intervarsity Mile Event 3 years in a row. He worked briefly in Tasmania before marrying Marjorie Moulton and they went to Tanganyika on 21/11/1940 where he joined Paul White at Myumi. Wellesley and Marjorie had one child, Lister in Myumi where unfortunately Marjory died of dysentery on 12/6/1944.

Wellesley married Barbara Metcalf in 1946 and they had 4 more children Timothy, David, Andrew and Paul.

The family lived in Melbourne in 1947, returning to Africa in 1948 for a second tour of Africa, returning to Melbourne in 1952 where they lived in LLanellan with his sister Valerie and her family. The family then moved to Mr and Mrs Coomb’s house in Eaglemont, then Station Street, Ivanhoe next to the Methodist Church. During this time Wellesley worked in the psychiatric ward at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, returning to Tanganyika in December 1954 for a third tour.

Dr Julius Nyerere had gained his doctorate in Edinburgh and had become a teacher back in Tanganyika. In 1954 he helped to form the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and agitated towards Independence. The British governor had been Edward Twining (as in the tea). His successor, Richard Turnbull was given the task of guiding Tanganyika to independence and in the first organised elections, each electorate was to have one European, one Asian (Indian or Arab), and one African. The idea being that Europeans and Asians would be in the majority.

To counter this, TANU (which had been Africans only) invited Europeans and Asians to join them and contest the seats. Wellesley Hannah was invited to join TANU and contest the Dodoma seat. TANU’s candidates all won, except for a local chief who immediately joined TANU. Wellesley became a member of the Legislative Council (Leg Co pronounced ‘ledge’). Tanganyika gained ‘Responsible Government’ on 9^th December 1960, with Julius Nyerere as ‘First Minister’ and complete independence on 9^th December 1961. The family returned to Australia in December 1961.

In 1962 aged 49, Dr Hannah worked at Larundel and Mont Park, studying for a Diploma in Psychiatric Medicine, and he then worked at Mont Park until 1963.

Dr Hannah operated in Theatre at Mont Park. Nurse Jenny Foreman said he was ‘not good at putting needles into veins’ because nurses had always done that for him in Tanganyika/Tanzania; he always called on Jenny to help him when he was operating at Mont Park.

He then worked at Ballarat Mental Hospital 1964-1965, Larundel for most of 1966 then back to Mont Park, living on the west side of Waiora Rd from 1967-1971. They then moved to Warrnambool where he became Superintendent of the Brierly Psychiatric Hospital from 1972-1975.

In the 10 years from 1975-1984 he returned to Tanzania, this time as a psychiatrist, and he worked for five years at Moshi then 5 years at Dodoma in Tanzania. Returning to Macleod in 1984, aged 71, after his third decade in Tanzania, Dr Hannah worked in geriatric psychiatry at Plenty Hospital in Bundoora for a couple more years and then retired.

 

Compiled from information provided by Andrew (Andy), Tim and Paul Hannah, and Jenny Foreman

There are two books about Dr Hannah’s work in Africa: ‘Doctor of Tanganyika’ and ‘Jungle Doctor’s Progress’ both books by Paul White (1962)