The runaway doctor - Grave Story 118

A wintery wind whipped through the grey-white hair and beard of Dr Arthur Herbert Orpen as he stood on the deck of the SS Australia when she sailed into San Francisco harbour.
Despite the chill, he smiled, thinking he had escaped a conviction for murder in far away New Zealand.
The little Irish doctor’s voyage had started 8000 kilometres and 26 days earlier in Auckland on Christmas night 1897 when he boarded the Alameda as a steerage passenger under the name of Arthur Herbert.
Dr Orpen’s hurried flight came on the same day that his patient 30-year-old Susan McCallum died, but not before she made a statement saying the 64-year-old doctor had performed an abortion on her – an illegal operation back then.
It was a spectacular fall from grace for Dr Orpen who, up till that point, had enjoyed considerable standing in Auckland’s high society, but it was not the first bad decision he made – nor would it be his last.
Orpen was born in Kilgarvan, County Kerry, Ireland in 1833 into a life of country lodges and hunting with horse and hounds. His father, Richard Hungerford Orpen was one of a long line of Irish gentry and landowners and his mother, Frances Diana Herbert, came from a long line of church ministers. Arthur Orpen graduated with a degree in medicine from Queens University in Belfast in 1856. He joined the military as an assistant surgeon, a career which led him to India, where he married Jane Sophia Spencer. The couple returned to Ireland and had eight children.
Dr Orpen went into private practice moving around England ending up in Oxford, and always moving in the highest of social circles.
Then, in 1882, Dr Orpen’s reputation suffered a severe blow when he was declared bankrupt owing 29 creditors around £1000 – a huge sum in those days. He continued to practice, but eventually decided to head for greener pastures in New Zealand leaving his wife and children behind.
Dr Orpen arrived in Auckland on October 31, 1888 and two days later was advertising his services, working a gentlemanly two hours a day. He also became church warden at St Pauls.
But all did not go as planned. In 1891 he was heavily criticised for his lax procedures when one of his patients died a few hours after being treated for a chest infection. Orpen had performed an autopsy and signed the death certificate despite not opening the man’s stomach. The incident was widely reported, damaging his reputation, but police did not investigate further.
Orpen also moved offices frequently and in 1897 opened a surgery in Coombes Arcade on High Street. Coombes Arcade also housed the real estate agency of fellow Irishman James Henry Muldoon, the grandfather of former Prime Minister Robert Muldoon.
Then in December 1897, Dr Orpen made the fateful mistake of agreeing to perform the abortion on Miss McCallum. The operation happened on December 9, however, she did not recover as expected. On December 24 she made her statement and died the following day.
Dr Orpen’s flight was widely reported, however, being aboard ship he could not have known that New Zealand authorities had arranged for an arrest warrant in the US and that San Francisco Police would be waiting for him at the port.
He was eventually returned to New Zealand, where he was tried for the murder of Ms McCallum. The first jury failed to agree and after a second trial he was acquitted.
Dr Orpen was free to continue practising medicine, but it would not be for long. Despite his narrow escape from prison, Dr Orpen was again arrested for performing abortions – this time in 1905 and this time on two different women. Both women survived and gave evidence against him, which must have been a blow to him knowing he had risked his career and freedom for them.
This time Orpen was found guilty and was sentenced to three years in Mt Eden Gaol – with hard labour. He was 72 years old and frail and did not last to see freedom again, dying on June 20, 1906.
But this was not the end of Dr Orpen’s story. The doctor had made two wills, one in 1902, leaving everything to his eldest daughter Mary Orpen and one in 1905 leaving the bulk of his estate to James Henry Muldoon, with a portion also going to his daughter. What ensued was a lengthy legal battle between the lawyers for Miss Orpen and Mr Muldoon. Then, inexplicably, Mr Muldoon withdrew his claim – but provided no explanation, leaving newspapers and Auckland society to question why Dr Orpen would leave a larger part of his estate to this man than to his family. Was it that Muldoon had some hold over him, or was it just another bad decision on the doctor's part? I guess we will never know.
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