Medical Practitioners - Dr J. Boyce Mugliston

 Dr Mugliston was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (England) and had been locum tenens for Dr Spark in Katoomba. In November 1895 it was announced that he was coming to live in Greenheys where he would begin to practise and would dispense his own medicine. By December he and his family had arrived and he was ready to begin. Horse and buggy accidents soon gave him opportunities to show his skills. In 1898 the Muglistons moved out of Greenheys and into Edmundville.

Dr Mugliston was a community minded citizen and became one of the Vice Presidents of the Cricket Club in 1897. Unfortunately, he found the Springwood community too healthy and went to Cargo near Orange in 1898 with the idea of relocating there, leaving his family temporarily in Springwood. He only stayed a few days, as he did not like Cargo. He threw himself into the recreational life of the town, participating in debates and entertainments. He debated ‘Republicanism versus the Monarchy’ with Martin Olsen, being himself in favour of the monarchy. He and Olsen often found themselves on opposite sides of a debate. He also organised a burlesque from Dickens’ Pickwick Papers in which he took the part of the judge, Justice Starleigh. In 1899 he was elected to the committees of the Debating Club and the Social Club, and later in the year he was elected President of the Debating Club. When the two clubs amalgamated he was made President of the new club.

He was always happy to take the chair at meetings and functions and chaired a banquet at the Oriental Hotel given for Mr S.E. Lees, the local member. Martin Olsen was present at this function too and spoke a few eulogistic words in favour of Dr Mugliston, who did not know what he had done to deserve all the nice things Olsen said about him. He felt it must have been because Olsen was a foreigner, and hence given to flattery. He also said that he was always willing to assist in anything that would tend to the progress of the town.

In July 1901, he finally had to accept that there was not enough sickness in Springwood to support a doctor and announced he was leaving the district. In December he returned for a presentation at the Royal Hotel where he received an address and a handsome present of plateware. He had been practising at Neutral Bay.

Shirley Evans

Medical Practitioners - Dr. Joel Baxter

BAXTER, Dr Ernest Joel (c1902–50) & Sylvia: Dr Baxter was one of Springwood’s most admired and respected medical practitioners. Both physician and surgeon, he trained in a number of Sydney hospitals.

      

He was born in Western Australia and was the son of Mr and Mrs John Baxter. In December 1929, following his marriage in August to Sylvia Watson (the daughter of Mr and Mrs J. A. Watson), he purchased the practice of Dr Milne in Springwood and remained here for the rest of his life. There were no children of the marriage.

      

His initiation into the Springwood practice was not an easy one. On the evening of 27 January 1930 a crowded excursion train ran off the rails and over an embankment at Warrimoo. Dr Baxter was one of the first to arrive at the accident site and found both the driver and the fireman dead and a 16-year-old Blaxland porter, who had been riding in the engine, trapped under the wreckage. Assisted by another doctor, Dr Baxter crawled under the engine and, in a two-hour operation carried out in heavy rain and using the light from car headlamps, amputated the boy’s hand to free him.

      

A cheerful and sociable man with a keen sense of humour, he involved himself in numerous town activities. He served a period as president of the Golf Club and as a member of the Christ Church Parish Council, was a life member of the School of Arts, a member of the Masonic Lodge and was actively associated with the Springwood Development League. He was a keen golfer and tennis player and a champion at billiards. ‘His handling of the cue’, noted one admirer, ‘like everything about him, was neatness personified.’ He was also a member of the honorary medical staff at the Nepean District Hospital.

      

Dr Baxter carried on working almost to the end of his life, assisted and supported by his equally popular wife, Sylvia. He died on 12 April 1950 in the Mater Misericordia Hospital in Sydney and was cremated at the Woronora Crematorium. A memorial service was held at Christ Church, Springwood, on 30 April and a committee was later established to raise money for a public memorial. The Dr Baxter Memorial Gates, designed by Wynn Davies, were erected at Buckland Park in front of the Springwood war memorial as a lasting tribute to one of Springwood’s most respected citizens.

Baxter Memorial Gates

John Low