The Doctor Digger

Dr Henry Radcliffe (1819 – 1903) was a young Liverpool doctor, who joined the Californian gold rush in 1849, sailing to San Francisco via Cape Horn. He settled in Stockton where, when not prospecting for gold in the upper reaches of the San Joaquin River, he founded the first hospital in Stockton and became the proprietor and first editor of the Stockton Times, the first newspaper in Stockton. He was also one of the first trustees of the Stockton Methodist Church, the earliest (by a day) church in Stockton.

The Doctor Digger is based on the letters of Dr Radcliffe, edited, with linking text, by his great, great, great nephew, John Radcliffe. Henry’s letters describe expeditions to remote parts of the Southern Goldfields, encounters with indigenous tribes and tribulations with the Stockton Times, as well as his longings for home. The book also illustrates features of life in California, the Indian genocide, independence from Mexico and Statehood and the Mariposa War.

When gold was discovered in Australia in 1851 Dr Radcliffe sailed for Sydney and made his way to the Victorian goldfields, finally settling in Ballarat. Later he became Honorary Physician at the Ballarat Base Hospital as well as maintaining a lucrative private practice. He died in 1903 ‘a very old , but very alert man’ and was buried next to the Eureka Soldiers Memorial in Ballarat Old Cemetery.