Dr Henry Wyatt Radford

Dr Henry Radford and his wife (and probably first child if she was “with child” when they married) arrived in the colony of New South Wales on 8 January 1824 aboard the Greenock. On 15 Jan 1824 he received a 2000 acre grant of land at Patrick Plains near Singleton. He called his property Ravenfield Station (after his home town in Yorkshire) and it was located on the Hunter River. A B Spark and James Mudie had nearby properties. In fact, Radford purchased some land (which he called Radfordlie) from his neighbour, Spark who had holdings from 1823.

Dr Radford was a surgeon attached to Her Majesty’s Army and served with a number of regiments in Europe and India from 1808 – 1818. His initial deployment was as Hospital Mate with the 45th Regiment of Foot, 1st Battalion from Dec 1808 where he served on the Iberian Peninsula under the command of Field Marshall His Excellency Duke of Wellington during the Napoleonic Wars. He continued to serve as surgeon during the Peninsular Wars in the 56th and 65th regiments until 1814. He then served in India during the Pindaree War of 1817 – 1818 in the 17th and 46th regiments. This was the first conflict involving the Gurkhas.

He probably met Frances Maria in South Africa whilst on furlough from India and married her there before coming to New South Wales. According to Colonial Secretary records dated 12 November 1824, Dr Radford, his wife, child and convict servants were receiving supplies from the Store at Newcastle at that time. The family returned to India with His Majesty’s 62nd regiment in 1829 soon after the baptism of Alicia (their 4th child) in March. They were stationed at Bangalore. Dr Radford held the position of Deputy Inspector of Hospitals in the Indian Service at this time.

They returned to Ravenfield in 1834 after suffering appalling conditions and terrible hardship on the subcontinent. They arrived in Sydney aboard the William Metcalfe on 7 October 1834.

Frances Maria had 8 children with Dr Radford. Two sons died of cholera in India as did many others with the Regiment. Two sons drowned in a shipwreck when they were returning from India to go to school in Australia .They were aboard the Lady Munro which was wrecked on Amsterdam Island on 11 Oct 1833. One daughter (Anna Louisa) burnt to death in a fire in India.

Dr Radford died at Ravenfield in 1836, a broken man after these tragedies. At the time of his death he owned 3 properties. In his will he left Ravenfield to his wife, Elderslie to his son Robert and Radfordslie (which had been bought from Spark) to his son Henry.