Harry Turbott best known for his ‘Radio Doctor’ role
Henry (Harry) Turbott, 1866-1946 Alice Turbott (nee Dillicar) -1934
Mention the name Harry Turbott and the older members of our community will probably say “Oh yes, the radio doctor”. Dr Harold Bertram Turbott’s voice did resound over the airwaves for many years but he was the son of the lessfamous Harry Turbott of Hamilton.
Harry Turbott Snr was born at Harrisville near Tuakau where his parents James and Catherine farmed.
James was active in the community, chairman of Harrisville School and on the town board.
As a young man Harry helped on the farm, but by 1900 his occupation was a painter, as shown by electoral rolls, and living in Epsom and Parnell. By then he had married. In 1896 Harry married Alice Dillicar, daughter of Richard and Mary Ann who farmed in the Grandview area, Hamilton.
The wedding was celebrated at the Trinity Wesleyan Church; Alice wore “a pretty light fawn costume, trimmed with white silk, and white straw hat with large white feathers” according to the Waikato Argus. After an al fresco breakfast at her parents’ home the couple left by train to Auckland en route for Lake Takapuna where they were to honeymoon.
They settled in Hamilton in about 1911, and Harry joined his brothers-inlaw William and Thomas Dillicar as an assistant in their business.
Dillicar Bros Ltd was a large department store-grocery in Victoria St south. Another job change saw Harry Turbott working as a carpenter by 1923. He did a lot of building work in Hamilton during the 1920s and 1930s, including building houses on land he owned in Colombo St in 1923 and Haig St in 1932.
The Turbotts lived initially in Liverpool St and then in northern Victoria St. They had a daughter, Margaret, and two sons, Harold and Benson.
Margaret took up nursing and became matron of Huntly Public Hospital. Benson worked as a signwriter in Hamilton before moving to Sydney.
Their son Harold (Harry) became very well known. He was dux of Hamilton High School, graduated MB, CHB from Otago University in 1923 and was prominent in the Department of Health.
His study of tuberculosis in Māori and Pākehā children brought him international acclaim.
He was medical officer of health at Hamilton for four years from 1936; during that time he worked with Te Puea Herangi to improve Māori health standards.
But it is for his ‘Radio Doctor’ role that he was best known to the general public, broadcasting from the early 1940s until 1946 and again for three decades from 1952.
The stories of Harry (senior)’s brothers John and Matthew have been presented in Dead Tell Tales, in July 2018. Brother Thomas was a teacher; John developed the Pukekohe Long Keeper onion and established a successful onion seed business; Matthew worked on the family farm until his death by drowning in Lake Waikare while duck shooting.
Harry’s nephew Evan Graham Turbott became director of Canterbury Museum and then Auckland Museum.
There was a third Harry Turbott as well – Harold Arthur Turbott, grandson of Harry Snr, was an architect and landscape architect; he died in 2016.
Alice’s family was prominent in the Hamilton community.
Richard Dillicar was a man of substance – he was an iron works owner at Rosedale Abbey in Yorkshire and later a shipping providore at Hull.
The Dillicars came to the Hamilton area in 1880. Alice came to New Zealand as a child. She went to Hamilton West School, when it was situated on Garden Place Hill.
In later life she was a prominent croquet player and a member of the Whitiora Club. Harry Turbott Snr was an enthusiastic cricketer during his years at Auckland and later in Hamilton.
He was a member of St Paul’s Methodist Church situated in London St, Hamilton. He died at Lower Hutt Hospital but his body was brought back to be buried in Hamilton West Cemetery in the large Dillicar family plot, immediately to the right from the Willoughby St entrance. He was buried with Alice who had died in 1934.