My Account
This month we start a series called ‘Tales from Warkworth’s past’ to mark the town’s 170th anniversary this year. Snells Beach author Bryan Jackson has put together a string of stories about the town’s famous, and sometimes infamous, characters, beginning this month with Doctor Ick. We hope you enjoy them.
The residents of Warkworth must have been elated in 1909 when they were informed that a new doctor was to arrive in the town. Australian-born Dr Edwin Ick married in Victoria in 1899 and had three children. However, while in Perth in Western Australia, he became involved with Laura Hewins, with whom he had a son. A court case and demands for child support from his wife Mary, led Edwin, Laura and baby Stanley to move to Warkworth.
In May of 1911, Edwin, who was now using the surname of Ick-Hewins, appeared in court seeking payment for medical assistance services provided and not paid for. The defendant’s counsel pointed out that there was no record of Ick-Hewins as a surname. The Magistrate Mr Smith told Edwin to change his surname officially.
Friday June 2 saw a startling event occur in the town when Dr Ick became aware of statements being made by local chemist, Mr Cadman, about his de facto wife Laura. Edwin told Laura, who decided, with Edwin’s agreement, that Mr Cadman should be horsewhipped. Next morning they bought a horsewhip from Mr Guest’s store. Edwin and George Guest then went to Mr Cadman’s shop and asked if he had made statements concerning Laura. Mr Cadman stated that he had. The men returned to Mr Guest’s shop and, after rounding up some local residents, they went back to Mr Cadman’s shop. It is reported that Laura attacked Mr Cadman using the whip with “considerable vigour”.
The allegations around Edwin and Laura were about whether they were married or not. In the June 5 issue of the Rodney Times, the editor called upon the doctor to produce a marriage certificate. It was never produced. In September 1911 Edwin legally changed his surname to Ick-Hewins.
In 1914, the Ick-Hewins family left Warkworth and worked throughout NZ for a few years before settling in Christchurch in 1921. Six years later, Laura returned to Australia and lived in hospital care in Canberra for 20 years. In 1956, she moved to Sydney to be near her son Stanley. She died in 1960, aged 85 years.
Edwin also returned to Australia in 1927 and practiced medicine. In Hobart, in 1936, he was reunited with his wife Mary and changed his surname again, removing Hewins from it. Mary died in 1942. Four years later, Edwin married Victoria Butler, a widow, whom he had known when he lived in Tasmania in the 1880’s. Victoria died in 1959.
At the age of 87, Dr Edwin Theophilus Ick died on June 7, 1963, and was buried in the same plot as his wife Mary at Carr Villa Memorial Park, Launceston. His gravestone bears the inscription: AMCI. HUMANI. GENERIS (A friend of the human race). So came to an end the life of a man who provided some entertainment to the people of Warkworth while living here.
