William Bland (5 November 1789 – 21 July 1868) was a prominent public figure in the colony of New South Wales. A surgeon by profession, he arrived in Australia as a convict but played an important role in the early years of Australian healthcare, education and science.
Bland was born in London and became a surgeon in the Royal Navy, serving on the East Indies Station. He was convicted of murder in 1813 after killing a crewmate in a duel in Bombay. He was sentenced to penal transportation, initially to Van Diemen's Land and then to New South Wales, where he was assigned to work at the Castle Hill Lunatic Asylum. He received a pardon in 1815 owing to the lack of qualified medical practitioners in the colony.
As one of the few surgeons in New South Wales, Bland practised medicine in Sydney for over 50 years. He developed new surgical techniques and improvised surgical instruments, publishing papers in The Lancet and later in the Australian Medical Journal. He was the founding president of the Australian Medical Association in 1859 and worked with the Benevolent Society. Outside of medicine Bland was a co-founder of the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts and served terms as treasurer and president of Sydney College, a forerunner to the University of Sydney. He was also an inventor, receiving a patent for a fire suppression device and designing an experimental steam-powered airship.
Bland became politically active shortly after his arrival in New South Wales and in 1818 was sentenced to a year in prison for libelling Governor Lachlan Macquarie. He aligned himself with other emancipists and supported William Wentworth's calls for representative government and expanded civil rights for ex-convicts. Along with Wentworth and fellow former surgeon John Jamison, he was a key figure in the creation of the Australian Patriotic Association in 1835. Following constitutional reform, in 1843 Bland became one of the first elected members of the New South Wales Legislative Council. He served multiple terms in parliament where he supported land reform and opposed the interests of the Squattocracy.
Bland was granted a state funeral upon his death in 1868. He is the namesake of Bland Shire and the former Division of Bland in federal parliament.
Bland was born in London on 5 November 1789. He was the second son of Robert Bland, an obstetrician who wrote for Rees's Cyclopædia. His grandfather Robert Bland was an attorney-at-law at King's Lynn. The identity of Bland's mother is uncertain. He had at least three siblings, an older brother and two sisters. His brother Robert was a clergyman, poet and teacher at Harrow School, while his sister Sophia married John Benjamin Heath, a governor of the Bank of England.
Bland was likely to have been educated at a public school, possibly at the Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood. He followed his father into the medical profession and may have served as his apprentice. In January 1809, he qualified for entry into the Royal Navy's medical service as a "surgeon's mate" after passing the examination conducted by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was promoted to naval surgeon in 1812 and was stationed aboard HMS Hesper on the East Indies Station.
On 7 April 1813, Bland shot and killed Robert Case, the ship's purser on Hesper, in a duel on Cross Island in Bombay Harbour. The duel stemmed from a disagreement between Case and William Randall, the ship's first lieutenant. According to contemporary accounts in the Bombay Courier, Case initially challenged Randall to a duel, which Bland tried to prevent. A few days later, Case continued to make remarks about Randall, who was absent, and was defended by Bland. Case then called Bland a "contemptible fellow", to which Bland responded by throwing a drinking glass at him; Case subsequently challenged Bland to a duel with pistols.
Bland and the three other surviving participants in the duel were charged with "wilful murder" and gaoled by the Recorder's Court of the Bombay Presidency. Only he and Randall – who had served as his second – were brought to trial. Bland mounted a defence of honour, stating that to refuse Case's challenge would have "doomed me to a punishment worse than death" and that he had no intention of actually killing the man. The Recorder did not accept the argument, finding that the killing was premeditated and advising the jury to find the defendants guilty. The jury accepted the instruction but recommended mercy. Both defendants were given sentences of transportation; Bland received the minimum sentence of seven years while Randall was given eight years as he was judged to have played a greater part in the circumstances surrounding the duel.
Bland arrived in Hobart as a convict in January 1814, transported with his co-offender Randall. Despite their status as criminals, they were invited to dine with senior army officers and invited to Government House by Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Davey, of whom Bland stated that he was "fortunate enough to obtain the steady and firm friendship". An account of Davey's actions was passed on to Lachlan Macquarie, the newly appointed governor of New South Wales, who stated that he had committed a "very great irregularity" in receiving the convicts.
In June 1814, Bland was sent on to Sydney. He was almost immediately granted his freedom by Macquarie and in September 1814 was appointed as the medical superintendent of the Castle Hill Lunatic Asylum. He was also granted some nearby government land for his own use. The appointment of convicts to government positions was not uncommon at the time due to a shortage of qualified individuals; the colony's principal surgeon D'Arcy Wentworth and assistant surgeon William Redfern were also ex-convicts. Bland received a full pardon on 27 January 1815.
In 1818 he wrote "pipes" (anonymous and variously insulting satires) criticising Governor Macquarie's treatment of farmers, and making fun of his desire to have his name on foundation stones; the Governor was not amused. Bland's handwriting was recognised and on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 September 1818 he was in court and convicted of libel fined £50/-/-d and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment which he served at Parramatta.
In 1825 his committee founded Sydney Public Free Grammar School.
In 1839 he contributed funds and land to the building of St John's Ashfield.
During 1839–1841, Bland wrote letters for Australian Patriotic Association (emancipists), which now show the constitutional struggles towards autonomy. Bland, as secretary to the association, helped draft two bills for a "representative constitution", which was approved in 1842 with Bland representing Sydney at its reading and approval passages.
Bland was an elected member of the NSW Legislative Council twice (1843–1848, 1849–1850) for the City of Sydney and after the introduction of responsible government was appointed to the NSW Legislative Council (1858–1861).
In 1849 Wentworth introduced a bill into the Legislature to create the University of Sydney, naming Bland as one of its first senators, but Robert Lowe raised Bland's criminal record and the 1813 duel, and the bill failed. Bland challenged Lowe to a duel but Lowe avoided it. Bland's name was not included on the bill that was eventually passed.
In 1843, Bland claimed that J. R. Hancorn had laid claim to an invention of his, the means for the prevention of spontaneous combustion, which he claimed to have invented in 1839.