Extraordinary Aucklander remembered
The extraordinary life and work of Arthur Guyon Purchas, the first Vicar of St Peter’s Anglican Church in Onehunga, is being celebrated at Easter by 200 family descendants in Auckland.
A doctor and surgeon, Purchas arrived in Auckland with his young wife Olivia on October 15, 1846 from England. They helped establish a settlement at the St John’s Theological College in Meadowbank, which remains today as the sole educator of Anglican clergy in New Zealand.
In addition to his specialist medical skills, Arthur went on to train at St John’s as a Priest becoming the first Vicar at St Peter’s Church in 1847. He remained in this role until 1875, when he resumed his full-time medical practice.
St Peter’s was established by a Crown grant of a block of land set aside for Church purposes. The Reverend Dr AG Purchas was ordained by Bishop Selwyn in September 1847 and the same year began his ministry. Soon after he set to work to build a church, which was completed and dedicated in
1848. Ten years later it was considerably enlarged and consecrated by Bishop Selwyn on September 12, 1858.
It was built in the Selwyn style of architecture devised by Bishop Selwyn with the assistance of two clerical architects – Rev Thatcher and Rev Dr Purchas – and was adopted for many early churches in and around Auckland.
The Rev Dr Purchas and his wife Olivia had 14 children (three sadly died) and it became necessary to enlarge the vicarage. Arthur decided to raise the house and make the building two-storied. He engaged help and did the work himself. Dr and Mrs Purchas cared for the sick in their own home when necessary as there wasn’t a hospital in the area.
When Dr Purchas resumed his medical career after 28 years at St Peter’s, he became known for his innovative surgical techniques operating on several women suffering abdominal cancers, all of whom survived except one whose cancer was too far advanced.
Most other surgeons refused to undertake these operations because they were considered too risky for the time. He also invented his own surgical clamps and was an early adopter of the key importance of hygiene, the treatment of surgical wounds via suturing and cleaning and improved methods of sealing and bandaging in post operative care.
Arthur Purchas also played a key role in developing many other areas of achievement in the region including designing the first Mangere bridge, helping found and foster the Auckland Choral Society and being declared ‘one of the best chemists in the colony’ by the New Zealand Advancement Society.
As a musician he created a Braille machine to read music for the blind, taught young Maori students to sing the Messiah with a different notation system, and was musical director of the New Zealand Anglican Diocese, leading him to produce two hymnals in English and Maori, which he spoke fluently.
He was a founding member of the Auckland Museum and the Auckland
Society of Arts and made the first European discovery of coal deposits in the Waikato.