Thomas R Mackern 1807 - 1874

Thomas R Mackern 1807? - 1874 MD, LRCSI, MRCSE Ireland 1842, Licentiate of Midwifery, Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, 1837, was an Irish orthodox physician, born in Limerick, who converted to homeopathy, to become a Surgeon at the London Homeopathic Hospital, Surgeon at the Clapham and Kennington Homeopathic Dispensary, member of the British Homeopathic Society,

Thomas Mackern was the homeopath of John Bright (who was also a patient of Joseph Kidd), and in 1871, Mackern was the homeopath of Georgina Weldon and her husband, and he was also called to treat Charles Francois Gounod during his illness (as was his colleague Wilberforce Smith), when he was staying with Georgina Weldon,

Thomas Mackern was a prominent Brother in the Plymouth Brethren, and he visited the West Indies in 1866, to preach the gospel and to promote the literature work of the Plymouth Brethren in the islands.

Thomas Mackern met numerous Christians who had then recently broken with their denominational associations. He wrote, ‘They had begun ‘amidst much opposition from professing Christians’ to gather ‘simply to the name of the Lord Jesus’ - which meant that Brethren assemblies were functioning.

Thomas Mackern made five or six voyages round the world, and he reported back on his journeys in the British Journal of Homeopathy in 1860, where he describes his efforts to establish homeopathy in Australia. In 1859, Thomas MacKern visited Australia and set up the Melbourne Homeopathic Dispensary, he lived at 159 Collins Street East Melbourne,

Mackern was a Steward at at The Annual Festival in aid of the funds of the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1851, in 1852, Mackern was present at the 3rd Annual Homeopathic Congress in Edinburgh, and in 1853, Thomas Mackern took part in a Festival in aid of the London Homeopathic Hospital. In 1856, Mackern was present at the Homeopathic Congress in London,

Thomas Mackern was the brother in law of Joseph Kidd, and he was a colleague of James Smith Ayerst, Bailkie, William Bayes, John Le Gay Brereton 1827 – 1886 (who eventually emigrated to Australia where he opened the first Turkish bath in Australia), Hugh Cameron, Edward Charles Chepmell, William Vallancy Drury, George Dunn, George Napoleon Epps, Arthur Guinness, Edward Hamilton, Frantz Hartmann, Amos Henriques, Thomas Robinson Leadam, Jas Bell Metcalfe, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, Henry Reynolds, John Rutherford Russell, Charles Caulfield Tuckey, George Wyld, Stephen Yeldham, and many others.

Thomas Mackern practiced at Clapham Common, Hackney, and at Pall Mall East.

In 1850 Joseph Kidd married Sophia McKern, a childhood friend, with whom he had eight children, including Percy Marmaduke Kidd, the eldest. Sophia died in 1872

Thomas Mackern of 10, Conduit Street, M.U.C.S., Ireland, 1842; Licentiate of Midwifery, Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, 1837; Surgeon to the London Homeopathic Hospital, and to the Clapham and Kennington Homeopathic Dispensary; formerly Member of the Medico Chirurgical Society of Dublin; now of the British Homeopathic Society… wrote Treatment of Aneurism by Compression, published in _The Lancet_.

Mackern’s Obituary is in The British Homeopathic Review, 1874 on p775