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Emeritus Consultants Biographies
Henry Adolphus Leschen was born in Adelaide in December 1862. The family came from a Royal House who lived in the disputed state of Schleswig Holstein on the border between Denmark and Germany. At the age of 13 he was sent to school in Kiel and later to Munich where he matriculated. He then went to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. After qualifying he returned to Adelaide and had a general practice there for about six years. In 1896 he came to Western Australia and had a general practice in Coolgardie. Two years later he accepted a government position as Assistant Medical Officer at the Coolgardie Hospital at a time when there were many people suffering from typhoid fever on the Goldfields. In 1899 he moved to Jarrahdale having accepted a position of medical officer to the timber mills and to the Whitby Hospital for mental diseases. Another move took him to Gwalia but in 1902 he moved to Perth where he commenced practice as a consulting physician. He was very successful and was later appointed an Honorary Physician to the Perth Hospital in which capacity he served the hospital for seventeen years. Henry and his wife Alma had two sons, Arnold and Hubert. For many years he was a member of the Army Medical Corps Reserve and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he volunteered for overseas service but was retained in Perth as Principal Medical Officer. Outside of medicine he was recognized as having a profound knowledge of literature and was devoted to music. Henry Leschen died on 22nd July 1931 after a long illness. |
