Major James William Crowhurst

Abstract

James William Crowhurst was born in 1865, Canterbury, United Kingdom and died on the 19th September 1944 (place not known). He came from a family with many veterinarians, including his father James (FRCVS). He arrived in the Cape Colony in December 1893 with three other veterinarians (R.W. Dixon, M.A. Hutchence and H.A. Pattison), who had all been appointed by the Cape government at the request of the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon, Duncan Hutcheon. In 1895 Crowhurst claimed to have reproduced Euphorbia poisoning experimentally by feeding Euphorbia genistoides to an ox, but unfortunately the experiment was interrupted and the records remained incomplete. From then on he was stationed mainly at Stellenbosch, where he also filled the position of veterinary lecturer at Elsenburg Agricultural College. He was retrenched in 1899 and started a private practice in Cape Town. Crowhurst was a member of the South African Philosophical Society from 1895 to about 1900. He became a member of the South African Veterinary Medical Association at its formation in 1920, and was still registered as a veterinarian in 1929. In 1902 he married Lily Margaret May Wolfe, with whom he had at least two children. (Source: S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=618)