Material relating to Charles Thelander MB ChB (Edin) FRACS

The material is largely photographic but may be added to in the future. There are board-mounted group photographs by A. Swan Watson, Bruntisfield, Edinburgh:

• Photograph of Theatrical group, with signatures including Charles A. Thelander, dressed as 'nun'
• SRC, Students' Representative Council, Executive Committee, including Charles A. Thelander, 1903-1904
• E.U. Winter Session, with Mr. Cathcart, and including Charles A. Thelander and other names, 1903-1904
• E.U. Summer Session, with Sir Thomas R. Fraser, and including Charles A. Thelander and other names, 1905
• E.U. Winter Session, with Sir Thomas R. Fraser, and including insert of absentee Charles A. Thelander and other names, 1905
• E.U. Anatomical Staff, with Professor Cunningham and Sir W. M. Turner, and including Charles A. Thelander and other names, 1905-1906
• E.U. Winter Session, with Professor Greenfield, and including Charles A. Thelander and other names, 1906-1907
• E.U. Final Year Medicine, no names, but including Charles A. Thelander and others, 1907
• E.U. Winter Session, with Professor Greenfield, and Professor Gullard, and including Charles A. Thelander and other names, 1907-1908
• R.I.E. Summer Session, signatures including Charles A. Thelander, 1908
• R.I.E. Winter Session, signatures including Charles A. Thelander, 1908-1909
• E.U. Winter Session, with Professor Caird, and including Charles A. Thelander and other names, 1908-1909

There are also:
3 x wooden boxes of slides - histology
1 x copy of The Royal infirmary of Edinburgh Bicentenary year 1729-1929 by A. Logan Turner. Oliver & Boyd: Edinburgh, 1929
2 x smaller versions of the photograph of the Theatrical group, with Charles A. Thelander dressed as 'nun'
1 x photograph of Charles A. Thelander, head and shoulders, by E. R. Yerbury & Son, Edinburgh
1 x photograph of R.I.E. ward with patients, doctors and nurses, and including Charles A. Thelander
2 x group photographs of excursion into countryside
1 x photograph with inscription, 'Yours faithfully, J. Caldwell, Craigielea Place, paisley, 16 March 1908'
1 x group photograph, Edinburgh Australasian Club, 1907, including Charles A. Thelander

In addition there are assorted printed items, ephemera:
1 x card - Constitution and Laws of Edinburgh University Physiological Society
1 x card - With all good wishes for Xmas and the New Year from Dr and Mrs Greenfield
1 x candidates card - Examination Hall, Victoria Embankment, London - Anatomical andd Physiological Examination for the Diploma of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England - to admit C. A. Thelander, 4 May 1905
1 x signed receipt being fee for qualifying course of twelve cliniques in the Wards of the City Hospital at Colinton Mains, Edinburgh, 1906
1 x signed receipt for photographic work of A. Swan Watson, Edinburgh, 1908

The board-mounted photographs have illustrated the work entitled Footprints: life and times of Charles Thelander M.B. Ch.B. (Edin) FRACS. 1883-1959 by Betty Newell & Rodney Thelander. Brisbane: Watson Ferguson & Co., 1995. A copy was gifted to the Centre for Research Collections (Special Collections), Edinburgh University Library, by Rod Thelander in July 2003. Shelfmark: SD 7101.

Charles August Thelander, son of Swedish migrants Elias and Karna Thelander, was born in Yangan, Queensland, Australia, in 1883. He attended local schools in Yangan and Toowoomba and began studies at the University of Edinburgh in 1902. In addition to funding from the Queensland Government for these studies, he won the Edinburgh University Vans Dunlop scholarship. Thelander graduated on 26 July 1907 with the degrees fo M.B. Ch.B., and he registered as a medical practitioner in Edinburgh on 29 July 1907.

He became a House Physician, then House Surgeon, at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh shortly after, and there he met Hélène Ramuz from Switzerland who would later become his wife. In 1909 he visited Europe, including Germany, and he made a short trip to Australia returning to Edinburgh in 1910. He returned to Australia permanently in 1911 to take up a medical career in Brisbane. Also in 1911, he married Hélène Ramuz. In 1922 however, she died leaving Charles a widower with three sons (Charlie, Paul, and Digger). In 1924 he remarried. His second wife was Daphne Morgan, niece of the former Queensland Premier Sir Arthur Morgan. They had a daughter (Betty).

In Brisbane, Australia, Thelander headed a group of medical practitioners - Ballow Chambers Ltd - which acquired a site on Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill, in the city, in 1924. The three-storeyed masonry office building is now heritage-listed.

In later years, Parkinson's Disease gripped his life, and Charles A. Thelander died in 1959.

Access should be unrestricted but please check in advance of any consultation.

Catalogued by Graeme D. Eddie, 8 July 2016.