Sandgate in the early days was a small pond and, like many small ponds, it had its share of big fish. One of these was Dr Guildford Davidson, a medical practitioner, sportsman and social luminary.
Born in 1869 into a prominent professional family (his father was Queensland’s third Surveyor-General), he studied medicine in London, returning to Brisbane in 1895. His first medical appointments were at Gayndah and Brisbane hospitals.
In 1899 he moved to Sandgate, having bought the practice of Dr Frederic Paul. Also that year he married Elsie Wade Brown, daughter of a leading grazing family (a “fashionable wedding” according to the Brisbane Courier). The newly-married Davidsons settled comfortably into Sandgate where they remained for 35 years. They had three children, twins Antill Guildford and Gillian, born in 1900, and Nugent, born in 1905.
He had a busy private practice, tending patients from Zillmere to Redcliffe, and dealing with every conceivable medical contingency, from shark attacks to childbirth. In addition, Dr Davidson served as the medical officer for the Sandgate municipal area, advising the council on public health and sanitation and reporting on outbreaks of notifiable diseases such as scarlet fever, typhoid, measles and, at least once, bubonic plague.
Civic Life, Sporting Feats, and Lasting Legacy
Dr Davidson’s professional responsibilities, though demanding, were not all-consuming. He and Elsie were active in Sandgate society, attending most of the town’s fund-raising card parties, balls and recitals, at many of which he was called upon to exercise his fine singing voice. He was an officer of the Masonic Lodge and was active in politics and civic life. In 1907 he was one of the “20 gentlemen” lobbying to open a Sandgate telephone exchange.
It was, however, the sporting life that was his great passion. He played competition cricket, tennis and even table tennis. He was an enthusiastic fisherman and loved hunting. His son Antill recalled his father regularly participating in snipe-shooting parties on friends’ properties in the Petrie district which, as a competitive member of the Sandgate Rifle Club, he particularly enjoyed. He also occasionally demonstrated his marksmanship by taking potshots at sharks from the Sandgate pier.
When Davidson retired in 1934, he and Elsie went to live at Mt Tamborine where he remained active, playing competitive golf and bowls and seeing the occasional patient. They later moved back to Sandgate, residing at his father-in-law’s house, Haddington, on Park Parade, where he died in 1943. Once aptly described by the Brisbane Courier as “the well-known, good-looking, cheerful, robust medico of Sandgate”, he was truly one of Sandgate’s memorable characters.
[With thanks to the Sandgate Historical Museum (opening hours: Sunday and Wednesday, 9.30am to 1.30pm)]
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