Hilda Bull

Hilda Bull
Born	(1886-07-02)July 2, 1886 Waverley, New South Wales, Australia
Died	June 29, 1953(1953-06-29) (aged 66) Melbourne, Australia
Occupation	Medical doctor
Spouses	Louis Esson ​ ​ (m. 1913; died 1943)​ John Dale ​ ​ (m. 1951; died 1952)​
Children	1

Hilda Bull (1886–1953), also known by her married names Hilda Esson and Hilda Dale, was an Australian public health physician and amateur actress and theatre director. She studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and worked as a doctor in London examining new army recruits during the First World War, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel in the British medical service and eventually being appointed medical superintendent for the London district. She later spent 23 years working as a medical officer for the Melbourne City Council and became known for her work as a public health physician. Her role at the council was initially focused on the prevention and treatment of diphtheria. During her tenure, thousands of inoculations were delivered and the number of annual deaths from diphtheria fell from 14 to zero. She later expanded her work to addressing other communicable diseases and achieved worldwide recognition for her research into poliomyelitis.

Hilda was the wife of the playwright and author Louis Esson and assisted in researching and drafting many of his plays. She was a founding member of the Melbourne University Dramatic Society and acted in a number of plays performed by the Pioneer Players, an amateur theatre company founded by her husband. She later became involved in the New Theatre and directed 15 of their productions. She was actively involved in Australian literary circles throughout her life, including through her close lifelong friendship with the author Katharine Susannah Prichard.

Hilda eventually separated from Louis and entered a relationship with John Dale, the chief medical officer at the Melbourne City Council. They retired from the Melbourne City Council in 1950 and married in 1951 before moving to The Hague. In 1952, a car accident in Italy killed John and seriously injured Hilda. She eventually recovered from her injuries and moved back to Melbourne, but died six months later on 29 June 1953.

Early life and education

Hilda Wager Bull was born in Waverley, a suburb of Sydney, on 2 July 1886 into a wealthy family. Hilda's father Thomas Bull, a herbalist, had decided early on that all of his children would become doctors. Her mother Kate Marina Harris was a former teacher who set high standards for her children. The family moved from Sydney to the Melbourne suburb of Armadale when Hilda was a child, and then to the suburb of Ormond. Hilda attended Presbyterian Ladies' College and graduated in March 1906. She developed a close friendship with two of her fellow students at the school, Nettie Palmer (née Higgins) and Christian Jollie Smith, as well as with her neighbour Katharine Susannah Prichard. While she eventually had a falling out with Smith, her close friendships with Prichard and Palmer endured throughout their lives.

After graduating from the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Hilda went on to study medicine at Melbourne University. She was a resident at Janet Clarke Hall and an active member of the Women Medical Students' Society. She was also a founding member of the Melbourne University Dramatic Society and played the lead role in a production of the play Hedda Gabler. During her time at university she campaigned on behalf of women's rights activist Vida Goldstein's bid for a Senate seat. Hilda married Louis Esson, a playwright and writer associated with Melbourne's socialist circles, in December 1913. Their marriage was conducted by Charles Strong, founder of the Australian Church. Hilda graduated with a first-class degree in medicine and with a Bachelor of Science, and spent time as a post-graduate scholar in pathology.

Career

Soon after Hilda's graduation and her marriage to Louis, the couple moved to Emerald, 40 kilometres east of Melbourne. Louis wrote occasional pieces for The Bulletin, while Hilda helped to transcribe his poems. After Louis' efforts to enlist to fight in the First World War were refused on medical grounds, the couple moved to New York towards the end of 1916. They settled in a one-bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village before relocating to Broadway. The couple soon developed a dislike of America, perceiving its culture to be filled with nationalism and shallowness, and decided to make the dangerous journey to London in September 1917. While Louis was unaware at the time, Hilda was motivated in part by her realisation that she was pregnant. Hilda was determined not to give birth in America, writing in a letter to a friend that she had chosen to "brave a long journey, submarines, starvation, and bombs round every corner, rather than bring another freeborn American into the world" and that she "couldn't bear to think that a child of mine should begin life with such a handicap".

In London, the couple moved into an apartment in Bloomsbury. On 2 May 1917, the couple's first and only child, a son named Hugh, was born. For the first time since their marriage, Hilda began working as a doctor and took a job with the army examining new recruits, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel in the British medical service. She was the medical officer in charge of the chief drafting depot and by the end of her four years of war service had been appointed the medical superintendent for the London district. She became exhausted by the burdens of balancing her job with caring for her infant son, expressing her joylessness and her longing for Australia in letters to friends. In July 1921 the couple returned to Melbourne.

Upon her return to Australia, Hilda decided to establish a small printing press to publish Australian literary works, while Louis founded a theatre company, the Pioneer Players, to perform original Australian plays. Just as Hilda was preparing for the printing of her first work, a collection of essays by Vance Palmer, the Essons' house was lost in a fire along with the printing press and Palmer's book. Hilda abandoned her goal of founding a printing press and returned to typing Louis' scripts and performing in his latest play, The Battler, as part of the Pioneer Players. Her performance in the role of Clara received mixed reviews, leaving her disillusioned with the experience. A review in The Bulletin labelled her performance "restless and unnatural", while The Australasian wrote that she was "hardly 'Australian' enough in accent to make the most of the part". The company continued to struggle for a time and received a lukewarm reception. Hilda, the only member of the group without other employment, took charge of the organisation. She found a new venue, St. Peter's Hall, and organised the company's 1923 program, including Louis' play Mother and Son and a night of short plays by writers including Katharine Susannah Prichard, Vance Palmer and John Le Gay Brereton. The company had some success, but continued to be beset by organisational problems and received diminishing attention from the press and the theatre audience. Hilda's performances were generally well received; in 1923, The Sun News-Pictorial labelled her a "gifted" actress and wrote that she "never flagged" in her performance in the lead role of the play Anna Christie.

In 1923 the couple moved to Mallacoota in frustration. They spent their time there camping and exploring the bush, treating it as an opportunity for both regeneration and literary inspiration. They soon returned to Melbourne, with Louis having produced drafts of two new plays and a novel. By 1925, with the family beginning to experience concerns about money, Hilda found part-time work as a demonstrator in the Melbourne University medical faculty. In 1926 she began to work as a sessional and relieving doctor in Fitzroy. She soon set up her own medical practice, which she would run until mid-1927, balancing her medical career with her continuing involvement in the administration of the Pioneer Players. In 1926, The Australian Worker noted her committed contributions to the Pioneer Players, writing that her "singleness of deed and vision is like undying fire".

Public health career

In mid-1927, Hilda applied for a job as an Assistant Medical Officer with the Melbourne City Council. She was interviewed by the Melbourne City Council's Medical Officer of Health, John Dale. Hilda was appointed to the position alongside Hilda Kincaid and was tasked with leading a campaign against diphtheria, which was at the time a major cause of infant death. Hilda quickly fell in love with Dale, although neither of them were willing to leave their spouses to pursue their mutual attraction. Hilda balanced her new career with assisting Louis in his research for his plays. Louis had worked as theatre critic for the New Triad between 1924 and 1927, but experienced a decline in his health and found that his career as a playwright had begun to stall by the late 1920s.

Hilda was busy during this period working on the diphtheria campaign and studying towards her Diploma of Public Health, which was a requirement of her position. In less than six months in the position, Hilda visited 19 schools, gave lectures, and reported at least 1723 inoculations and 1730 throat inspections. By 1931, the program had reached 15,000 children. While diphtheria cases had grown by 50% across the Melbourne area, cases in the Melbourne City Council had grown by just 28%. The infant mortality rate in the inner city had fallen from 8.19% in 1927 to 5.43% in 1931. In 1930, when Hilda was reappointed to her position on a salary of £550, it was estimated that she had saved more than 300 children from diphtheria and that she had saved the council £5400 in treatment costs. In addition to her work at the council against infectious diseases, Hilda operated a psychiatric clinic for mothers and children in Carlton. She was also an active participant in the public health debates of her day. She advocated for better child nutrition, opposed the legalisation of euthanasia,, called for action against tuberculosis amid a rise in the number of children being born to mothers suffering from the disease, and advocated for the opening of birth control clinics.

Hilda's relationship with John became more public by the early 1930s, with the pair attending occasional events as a couple while Louis remained unwell and reclusive. Hilda also became more active in left-wing politics. Unlike her close friend Katherine Susannah Prichard, Hilda never joined the Australian Communist Party, but she remained committed to left-wing political ideas and causes. She became involved in the New Theatre, a radical amateur theatre company, where she performed in a number of plays and directed 15 productions. In 1939, Louis made the decision to move to Sydney, formalising a separation of sorts between Louis and Hilda, who continued to visit him two or three times each year. On 27 November 1943, Louis died in Sydney.

Later life

Hilda continued to direct a number of successful plays for the New Theatre, throwing herself into her work after Louis' death. But her health soon began to decline and she eventually realised that she was suffering from some form of cancer. She underwent exploratory surgery in late 1948 and retired from the New Theatre. That same year, she finally moved in with John as he moved to finalise his divorce from his wife. Hilda retired from her position at the council as Medical Officer for Communicable Disease Control on 23 November 1950 after 23 years of service, with her work having expanded from diphtheria prevention to include combatting other communicable diseases including measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever and poliomyelitis. She was reported to have achieved worldwide fame for her research into poliomyelitis.

After John joined her in retirement at the end of 1950, he was offered a position in The Hague as a medical assessor for those intending to migrate to Australia. As they prepared to travel, John's divorce was finalised in February 1951; he and Hilda married on 7 March and left for Rome in early May. In 1952, they decided to take a driving trip through London, France and Italy. On 26 September, their car overturned while they were driving along a road near Verona, killing John instantly and seriously injuring Hilda.

After three months in an Italian hospital and a month being cared for by her friend Catherine Duncan in Paris, Hilda recovered from her injuries. She returned to Melbourne, where she grieved John's death and occupied herself with the education of her infant granddaughter. She lived for another six months before dying in Melbourne on 2 June 1953.. Contemporary newspaper reports largely attributed her death to the injuries suffered in her car accident, while other sources give cancer as her cause of death.

References

Bibliography

• Fitzpatrick, Peter (1995). Pioneer Players: The Lives of Louis and Hilda Esson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521456449. OCLC 32132552. Retrieved 22 June 2025.