What do Fred Astaire, Peter Pan and Don Bradman have in common with Ned Kelly? [Sharon Hollingsworth]

What do Fred Astaire, Peter Pan and Don Bradman have in common with Ned Kelly?

The thread that pulls them all these diverse strands together is Sir Douglas Shields, an Australian surgeon who found fame and fortune practicing in London. Douglas Shields was the son of Dr. Andrew Shields, who was chief medical officer at the Old Melbourne Gaol. Dr. Shields attended Ned Kelly when he was brought in to the Gaol and he later actually allowed Douglas (at age 4) to go in and see Ned Kelly in his cell. (Years later young Douglas also got to meet Frederick Deeming as his father also attended to him). 

As for the previously mentioned names, when Fred Astaire and his sister Adele were doing shows in London in the 1920s they were accompanied by their mother, Ann, who had taken ill and spent time at Shields's nursing home. Sir James Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, was good friends with Shields and a patient of his, also. He was in the nursing home at the same time as Astaire's mother and befriended her and met with Fred and Adele.

Cricket legend Don Bradman's life was saved by Douglas Shields when he operated on him for an acute case of appendicitis in 1934.

Another Kelly tie-in is that back in the 1890s Douglas Shields was a member of the half-battery of Royal Horse Artillery at Sir William Clarke's Rupertswood estate. Of course it ties in due to the fact  that Superintendent Francis Hare was related to the Clarke family by marriage and that he had spent time at Rupertswood recuperating after Glenrowan and had given a set of Kelly gang armour to Clarke.

Sir Douglas Shields led a fascinating life. In World War I he became a Brigadier General in the Royal Army Medical Corps. The hospital that was built for him in London by the mother of a grateful patient (even though the patient did not pull through, the hospital being built as a memorial to her son) became the Hospital for Wounded Officers during the war. It later became a private clinic/rest home. Shields was knighted in 1919. He had many rich and famous patients other than those mentioned above, one of them being the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia.

There is a great deal more on the net about Sir Douglas Shields which is well worth a look if you are so inclined.

Currently I am working on a blog post about Ned Kelly and how he was denied visits from his family and friends (other than his mother) during most of his prison incarceration. This bit about Douglas Shields getting in to see him seemed like a good teaser/lead in for it.

Stay tuned!

[Note: the post alluded to above has now been added at http://elevenmilecreek.blogspot.com/2011/07/carefully-controled-gaol-visitors-for.html]