Thomas Awbrey Bowen (known as ‘Aubrey’) was born on 20th December 1837, in Cradley, Worcestershire, England, third son of William Bowen, a Unitarian minister, and Marianne (Priestly) Bowen, the granddaughter of Joseph Priestly FRS. The family migrated to Australia in 1857 whilst Aubrey was partway through his medical studies at Sydenham College and Birmingham General Hospital. He returned to England in 1861 to complete his medical course, followed by MRCS in 1862, sixteen months at Birmingham Eye Hospital, three months at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin for a midwifery licentiate LKQCPL, some eye clinics at Moorfield Hospital in London and returning to Melbourne in 1864.
He registered with the Medical Board in 1864 and joined the Medical Society of Victoria. He then spent two years as a Resident surgeon at the Melbourne Hospital. After this, he spent two years in private medical practice before joining with Dr E M James in 1869 to found the Ophthalmic and Orthopaedic Institution, which amalgamated with Dr Gray’s Melbourne Institution for Diseases of the Eye and Ear and changed name to the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.
As the ophthalmoscope and refinements of instruments for eye surgery, and the small size of the operations required specialist training and application, the treatment of eye and ear diseases was to move to a new stage away from general surgeons to specialists. The separation of specialists was strongly opposed by the general surgeons who fought rearguard actions to prevent the appointment of specialists to the large general hospitals. (The Melbourne Hospital’s appointment of an honorary ophthalmic surgeon was delayed until 1913). However, Gray and Bowen’s Institution (Fig. l) progressed and became The Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (Fig. 2).
This provided a firm base with its outpatient clinics and hospital beds to allow its specialists to flourish. Today it is a centre for excellence. In 1899, the Ophthalmological Society of Melboume was founded, the first in Australia. Gray was the first president and Rudall the second.
In 1869 Bowen was elected Honorary Secretary of the Medical Society of Victoria, a position he held for four years. In 1875 he became President. He was Honorary Treasurer 1884-9, and a trustee until 1893. In these several capacities he obtained ai grant from Government of the land in Brunswick Street South, upon which the Hall of the Medical Society was built, and he took an active part in raising the money (by means of debentures) for a building fund. The opening of the hall, on the 9th of January 1878, was an occasion of great satisfaction.
In 1870 (March 8th) Dr. Bowen married the second daughter of the Hon. Henry Miller, M.L.C., and thereby became of independent means. However, he continued his professional work and his contributions to the literature of ophthalmology.
Bowen was an enthusiastic yachtsman and was for some time Commodore of the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. Notwithstanding that his asthma was nearly always aggravated when at sea, he preferred to risk an attack than lose the enjoyment. Suffering as he did, from spasmodic asthma, it was fortunate for him that his means enabled him to travel. He, therefore, not only visited the other colonies on frequent occasions, but several prolonged visits to Europe, on one in 1889 acting as one of the Victorian Commissioners of the Paris International Exhibition. In 1893 he was appointed by the Government to attend as their representative at the Medical Congress in Rome, but en route for England, he experienced an attack of influenza which aggravated his lung-condition, so that, when he arrived in London, he was fast sinking, and he died on 27th July. His widow lived until 1911. They had no children.
Last updated 17 May 2025.
Article by Dr Allan Mawdsley OAM
Sources: Obituary, Australian Medical Journal, 15 Sep 1893, p.474; Wikitree; R. Lowe, “T Aubrey Bowen, Oculist” A J Ophthalmology, 1981, 9, pp.155-162.; Lowe, Ronald. F., “Founders of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology in Victoria, Australia”, History, Heritage and Health conference, Norfolk Island, 1995.