Dr Charles George Everard

Charles George Everard was born in Marshfield, Gloucestershire, England, and baptised at St Michael’s Church in Winterbourne on 29 August 1794. On 17 February 1817, Charles married Catherine Russell. When the family sailed for South Australia in the Africaine in 1836 there were four children, a fifth child having died in 1831, aged two. The family was accommodated in the Intermediate section of the ship, but messed at the captain’s table.

There is no record of his medical training, but Everard was the Africaine’s doctor during its voyage to South Australia. As ship’s doctor, Everard was occasionally required to conduct the Sunday service. Dr Everard was a Unitarian and on the first occasion he preached he omitted any mention of the Trinity and so upset a large number of the congregation. Ordered to redress this omission in future services, he complied.

It may be that Everard’s real interests lay outside of medicine, in farming and public life. Before he set sail from England, he purchased at least two country sections of land, for which he was allocated five one-acre city sections. There is also no record that he practised medicine for fees in the colony, nor did he register with the Medical Board. He had mixed success at farming but in 1857 was elected as a member of the Legislative Council. He died on March 30, 1876.