A few months ago, as if I needed reminding that the archiving of our profession’s history had been a haphazard business in the past, I was given a plastic carrier bag containing some of the most remarkable physiotherapy memorabilia you are ever likely to see.

The contents of the carrier bag included an original certificate from the Dunedin School, dated 29 September 1916, a certificate of service in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during World War I, and one of the first certificates produced by the Masseurs Registration Board. 

Edith Thomson was born into status and privilege at the end of the nineteenth century as part of the eminent Thomson family of Dunedin.  Her relatives included Allan Thomson, New Zealand’s first Rhodes Scholar, and George, or G. M. Thomson, who was one of Dunedin’s early pioneering Presbyterians. 

According to her daughter, Edith was a kind, warm-hearted girl who from an early age showed a keen interest in botany, much like her grandfather who taught it at Otago Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools.  But it was the practise of massage that called to her, and in July 1913, along with seven other women, she began training as one of seven women on New Zealand’s first formal massage course.

Five women passed the course: Flora Gray; Frances Skevington; Ellen Smith; Edith Thomson; and Elizabeth Washer.

With the outbreak of war a number of masseurs, including Edith, signed up for service with the Expeditionary Force.  From 9 July 1917 until the end of the war, and then up until 4 April 1920, she served as a masseuse in military hospitals, and was awarded the British War Medal for her service.

After arriving in England in September 1917, she was posted to 2/NZGH Walton before returning to New Zealand on board the S. S. Athenic to complete her service at Invercargill Hospital, Christchurch and Trentham Military Hospitals. 

In 1920 she became the 257th registered masseuses under the newly enacted Massage Registration Act (1920).

Interestingly, the first massage certificates made reference to the bearer having passed an “examination in both theoretical and practical massage (including medical electricity remedial exercises and other branches of physio-therapy)” – one of the first official acknowledgements of the name the profession would formally adopt 30 years later.

Edith did not remain a masseur for many more years.  She married and had five children, and never really spoke about or practised physiotherapy again.

The experience of stumbling upon Edith Thomson’s records is a salutary reminder that much of our history lies in the hands of private collectors, family members and old physiotherapists.  It was sheer good fortune that led to us acquiring Edith’s physiotherapy records and we are indebted to the Thomson family for their generosity.  But if Edith was the 257th of more than 300 members of the first massage register, my question is: Where are the others? 

Each of our profession’s pioneers has something to tell us about our past and we must do whatever we can to preserve their legacy.

By David Nicholls

Edith Thomson

Edith (centre) on board SS Athenic 1919


 

 

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