Harman John Tarrant (14 November 1844 – 10 September 1900) was an Irish-born Australian surgeon and politician. Tarrant was born in Belfast, the son of revenue collector Harman Tarrant and Elizabeth O'Callaghan. He trained as a medical doctor in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

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, and was a fellow of the

Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations a ...

. He emigrated to New South Wales, arriving in around 1868, running his medical practise in Kiama from 1869. On 10 August 1869 he married Frances Jane Hargraves, daughter of gold pioneer Edward Hargraves and they would have six children. He moved his practise to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in 1879 and was appointed an honorary surgeon to the

Sydney Hospital Sydney Hospital is a major hospital in Australia, located on Macquarie Street in the Sydney central business district. It is the oldest hospital in Australia, dating back to 1788, and has been at its current location since 1811. It first rece ...

. In 1880 he was elected to the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

for Kiama at the 1880 by-election. He was re-elected in

1880 Events January–March * January 22 – Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia. * January – The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy. * February � ...

1882 Events January–March * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in ...

and

1885 Events January–March * January 3– 4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam. * January 4 – ...

, resigning in December 1886 due to the pressures of his professional practice as a surgeon. Tarrant was active in the Masonic movement, rising in 1887 to grand master of the Grand Lodge of New South Wales Freemasons, which had broken away from the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland and Ireland. He worked to reunite the lodges as the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales, with

Lord Carrington Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton, (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secret ...

Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governors of the ...

, being elected the first grand master. In 1890 was appointed to the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

, where he remained until his seat was declared vacant on 12 May 1896 because he had been absent for 2 complete sessions. In 1887 he treated the actor

William E. Sheridan William E. Sheridan (June 1, 1839 – May 18, 1887) was an American stage actor and American Civil War, Civil War veteran, active on stage from 1858 until his death in 1887. Sheridan was a respected actor who played both lead and supporting role ...

who had a stroke at the theatre, however Sheridan died the following day. Tarrant would later have a relationship with Sheridan's widow, Louise Davenport, with an obituary stating that "his downfall began when he became so hopelessly infatuated with a woman as to disappear with her from the scene of social, professional, and political distinctions which he had honorably won". He resigned his position at Sydney Hospital by July 1894, and left Sydney for England with Davenport, taking £400 which was the entirety of his available cash, abandoning his family, medical practice, book debts estimated at £2,000 and his library and surgical instruments valued at £300 to £400. His wife had sold the books and instruments to pay for household and family expenses. While in London he had worked as a theatrical agent for Davenport. He returned to Sydney in 1898 and was bankrupted on his own application in October 1898, owing £114,000. He applied to be discharged from bankruptcy, with Justice Walker finding that he had borrowed money in 1892 to invest in a speculative mining venture in Queensland for Bismuth, used for treating an upset stomach, when there was no reasonable expectation he would be able to repay the money and that he left Sydney in circumstances that were prejudicial to his ability to pay his creditors. On his return to Sydney he widely promoted his claim to a "new method of healing", with advertisements funded by a partnership of C J Browning and William Charles Green and continuing after his death. Tarrant died in Sydney on . Francis died in in March 1914.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarrant, Harman 1844 births 1900 deaths Colony of New South Wales people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 19th-century Australian politicians