A practice of doctors.
Holly McNamee at an exhibition opening in 2013 (Maitland Mercury)
Local resident and artist Holly McNamee has fond memories of her grandfather and father. Both were general practitioners in Maitland. So, too, was her great grandfather. All had their practices and residences in the same building – 233 High Street. All also attended to patients in Maitland Hospital.
Holly has shared her memories, memorabilia and family history research.
William Dudley Power (1853-1912)
Holly’s maternal great grandfather, William Power, gained his medical qualifications in Cork in Ireland and in Edinburgh in Scotland where, in 1875, he was registered with both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons.
In 1876 he joined an uncle, Dr Robert Moore, in South Australia. After two years he took on the task of travelling as the medical referee for the AMP Society before, in 1880, he moved into the premises at 233 High Street, West Maitland, previously occupied by John Stride. From 1880 to his death in 1912 these premises served as William Power’s surgery and as his family residence.
In Maitland he met, and in 1883 married, Frances Thompson, the only daughter of John Thompson, joint proprietor of the Maitland Mercury.
Appointed Government Medical Officer in August 1881 and listed among Maitland Hospital’s medical staff by the mid-1880s, Power was also the honorary medical officer for the Maitland Benevolent Society from 1888 to 1912, for the Manchester Unity Lodge of Oddfellows and for the local branch of the Hibernian Society.
Hibernian Society gathering behind the Royal Hotel, Maitland, c1900
W D Power is in the front row in the light coloured suit, and directly behind him to the left is my father’s father Matthew McNamee. We only discovered that they were together in the photo years later…’ (Holly McNamee)
Throughout his time in Maitland, Power’s name appears frequently in the Maitland Mercury for giving evidence at coronial inquiries, attending to specific patients, and being thanked for his medical skills and services.
From the one surviving photograph (see above) he looks an elegantly dressed and trim man, his long legs bending awkwardly. Indeed, in 1897 he purchased a custom-made Imperial bicycle because he ‘found the frames of ordinary machines procurable in the colony too low for his length’. It was clearly an impressive machine ‘painted silver-grey with cardinal tines, and the doctor’s crest’ on one of the bars. It seems he cycled to see patients, especially those within West Maitland. In 1904, for example, he complained to council for being fined for riding his bicycle on the footpath in Carrington St on the grounds that he was visiting a patient and that medical practitioners should be exempt from the restrictions on where one could ride.
In 1909 he took a leave of absence from Maitland to seek treatment in New Zealand for the severe rheumatism from which he had suffered for some time. As an indication of his popularity in the community, a local fundraising effort realised a contribution of £140 towards his expenses.
Power resumed his practice and his other medical duties on his return from New Zealand. In mid-1912, however, he became seriously ill and died on 2 June that year.
James Joseph Hollywood (1881-1955)
Holly’s maternal grandfather, James Joseph Hollywood, gained his medical qualifications from the Royal University of Ireland in 1906.
James Hollywood (on left in photo) with some mates in Dublin, Ireland, c 1906
‘Sticky-backs’ were an early form of relatively cheap and quickly printed photographs.
In early 1908 Hollywood arrived in Sydney and, on 12 January 1908, was registered as a medical practitioner in New South Wales. He then took up a locum with Dr John Baldwin Meredith at Raymond Terrace.
James Joseph Hollywood (3rd from right) and John Baldwin Meredith (4th from right), Raymond Terrace, about 1908
The following year Hollywood joined the practice of fellow Irishman and Catholic, William Power, at 233 High Street, West Maitland. In late 1912 he married Power’s daughter, Adele. As his granddaughter Holly McNamee observes:
When Pop married Adele, and W. Power had died, in the true Irish tradition he took on the building at 233 High St, the practice, the mother-in-law, sister-in-law and at least one of the brothers-in-law - Dudley Power.
Like his father-in-law before him, Hollywood flanked his private medical practice with a range of honorary and government appointments. He was a medical officer at Maitland Hospital, honorary medical officer to the Maitland Benevolent Society, Government Medical Officer from 1917, and Visiting Surgeon and Dispenser at Maitland Gaol from 1920.
Hollywood also served in the Australian Army Medical Corps. He was appointed a provisional captain in 1912, captain in 1915 and major in 1916. He was on active service, mainly in Egypt, from February 1915 to April 1916.
In 1919, in his various capacities, Hollywood was involved in containing, and immunising against, the influenza pandemic (‘Spanish’ flu) that decimated the world that year. Sadly, his wife Adele was one of the victims. With her passing, Hollywood had the responsibility for his three infant children: daughters, Sheilagh and Moira, and his son, Desmond, who was born after his return to Australia.
Adele Hollywood and her two eldest children, Sheilagh and Moira, 1915
James Hollywood carried the photo in a soft leather wallet with him to Egypt.
In 1922 Hollywood married his sister-in-law Mary Pierce (Mollie) Power. As Holly McNamee observes, Mollie ‘became sister-in-law, wife, aunt and stepmother all on her wedding day!’ The couple had three children, only one of whom – Deirdre - survived to adulthood.
Hollywood continued his medical work in private practice as well as his positions with Maitland Hospital, Maitland Benevolent Society, Maitland Gaol and as Government Medical Officer. In these capacities there are regular reports in the local newspaper of his attendance at coronial inquiries, and of his work at, and engagement with, Maitland Hospital.
Hollywood retired in early 1950, and moved to Rose Bay. He died in Rose Bay in 1955.
Kevin Matthew McNamee (1912-1991)
Holly’s father, Kevin McNamee, grew up in Sydney and gained his medical qualifications at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1939.
While at university McNamee joined the Sydney University Regiment and, with the outbreak of the Second World War, enlisted and was sent to the officers’ camp at Largs.
In Maitland he met James Hollywood’s daughter, Moira. He also spent a short period as a locum at the 233 High Street surgery.
Kevin McNamee and Moira Hollywood married in 1942. As Holly observes, ‘Dad seemed to follow a tradition of marrying one of the doctor’s daughters like his father-in-law before him.’
Following their marriage, McNamee was sent to North Queensland for tropical training before embarkation to the Pacific arena where he worked as a doctor.
On his return from military service, McNamee and his growing family rented a flat above McLaughlins bakery in High Street, Maitland, and then, for a short while, moved to Boggabri where he did a locum and a third child, Holly (named after her maternal grandfather), was born. The family then returned to Maitland. As Holly’s brother Jim McNamee recalls:
Dad returned to Maitland to work in the practice with his father-in-law because Desmond, who also trained as a doctor at Sydney University, decided that he wished to move from Maitland and not work in the practice.
Kevin and Moira McNamee and their family settled into the residence at 233 High Street and McNamee resumed working in the family surgery. He eventually bought the practice from his father-in-law and, following Hollywood’s pattern, he became an honorary medical officer at Maitland Hospital and Maitland Gaol, the Area Medical Officer, and provided honorary medical services to the Newcastle Aero Club and Hunter Legacy.
Kevin McNamee (right) inoculating Tracey Gear at the City Council Clinic, March 1965.
(Maitland Mercury, 25 March 1965)
Tracey is held by her aunt, Mrs A Hodges.
Like Power and Hollywood before him, McNamee was also a practising Catholic and he followed the family tradition of taking care of the local Catholic clergy. Holly observes:
there were lots and lots of nuns, priests and brothers here, and they looked after all of them for no fee.
McNamee, who became known as ‘Dr Mac’, retained the surgery at 233 High Street. He worked first from the original building then, when it was demolished in the early 1960s, from a new, small surgery erected next to the Shell station that was built on the site. The replacement surgery was itself pulled down in the 1990s. The Shell service station is still there. The family relocated to Tenambit. McNamee was living in Tenambit when he passed away in 1991.
References and resources
Alumni Sidneienses (online database), University of Sydney Archives
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette
Holly McNamee, About Maitland, exhibition at Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 21 Nov 2020 – 21 February 2021
Holly McNamee, family history collection
Holly McNamee talking to Janis Wilton, audio recording, 3 August 2020
Maitland Mercury
Meehan, Michelle, ‘When Maitland, art and history meet…’, Maitland Mercury, 24 April 2013
New South Wales Government Gazette
Views of Maitland (online database), entries for Surgery and residence (former) - 233 High St, John Stride, William Power, James Hollywood, Kevin McNamee.
Note: unless otherwise specified, all images on this page are from the Holly McNamee family history collection.