George Attfield was a doctor, first-class cricketer and three-time Chairman of the Western Australian Turf Club in its infancy, an amazing man who was the United Kingdom's oldest medical practitioner at the time of his death.
George Attfield was a doctor, first-class cricketer and three-time Chairman of the Western Australian Turf Club in its infancy, an amazing man who was the United Kingdom's oldest medical practitioner at the time of his death.
Born in the UK in 1826, Attfield played for the Marylebone Cricket Club and the Surrey Club before arriving in Western Australia in 1854. Attfield was the Imperial Surgeon for the Fremantle Convict Establishment from 1857 to 1879, during which time he served three seasons - 1868 to 1869, 1876 to 1877 and 1878 to 1879 - as the WATC's Chairman. For the final quarter of the 19th century, Attfield operated Fremantle's only private medical practice so he was everyone's doctor in the port city. Eventually, Attfield returned to the UK but he did not retire, seeing patients right up until he died in 1925.