The man who invented the Murder House

I'm sure you remember it. Most schools had a little dentalclinic set up that you got hauled out of class to go to.
Most of us hated it. So of course we nicknamed it the murder house. It was something that was familiar for generations of New Zealand kids.
Well, it's Thomas Anderson Hunter's fault.
He was a progressive dentist who was determined to see dentistry advanced after being disillusioned by the number of men who signed up for World War One but needed dental treatment first. About 60 percent!
So he wanted to improve the dental health of future New Zealanders and he had an idea. Women would be trained (his theory was they were better with children) to run this service in schools.
Thomas Anderson Hunter was born in Dunedin on February 10, 1863 to Scottish parents, engineer Alexander Hunter and Mary Sim.
He trained as a dentist under Alfred Boot and was already practising at 17 years old.
He and Boot were often travelling dentists, trying to fix the damage done by the more rogue elements of dentistry, going around the South Island.
The first sign of his progressive nature was he wanted to properly train young colleagues and raise standards. It would be his lifelong mantra.
The first attempt to set up a dental association failed but in 1903 he and others persuaded politician Thomas Kay Sidey who helped champion the Dentists Act that passed in 1904. The Dental Association was set up in 1905 although it took some time to gain traction.
Then, as soldiers were being recruited for the First World War, Hunter became horrified at the state of their teeth. As chairman of the association he proposed a civilian corps to do the work needed at cost. It was so successful a full New Zealand Dental Corps was set up and Hunter put in charge of it. He attained the rank of colonel for his work.
A close friend of Truby King (who was the founder of Plunket), he saw a dental parallel in the nurses being used. So he put together a proposal to train women as dental nurses.
The school dental scheme was founded in 1921 - a world first - with the first dental nursing school opening in Wellington that same year.
While it’s not known who started it, the first instance of the reference to the murder house came in about 1964, no doubt started in part because of the weird - and frankly barbaric - looking equipment in those little rooms.
He was knighted in 1946 for his work.
Hunter married Greta Ewen in 1927, just three years before he retired. He died, aged 95, on December 29, 1958 and was cremated at Karori Cemetery.