Herbert Clapham

The Man History Forgot

By Gray Clapham

Herbert Clapham was my great-grandfather on my father's side. He does not feature in any New Zealand history books, but in his lifetime he was a well-known and influential character of his era; in many ways infamous and, at times, sensational. He was a hyperactive mix of woollen industry entrepreneur, quasi-medical guru, snake-oil salesman, consummate self-promoter and, well ahead of his time, a pioneering entrepreneur in the promotion of wellbeing and healthy lifestyles. In the 1880s he was a key figure in New Zealand's wool milling industry. He went on to make headlines by claiming he could cure tuberculosis and other serious diseases of the day. With no medical qualifications, he established private hospitals that he called 'sanatoriums'. He took his ideas about healthy living to California, where his clients included early movie stars of the 1920s. He was also a founder of the Healtheries health food company. But let us start at the beginning and follow Herbert's timeline through newspaper reports spanning the mid-nineteenth century to his untimely death, reportedly at the age of 100, when he was knocked down by a motorcar while crossing Queen Street in Auckland — on his way home from work.

Herbert Clapham was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on 8 May 1848. His father was Captain John Clapham (1810–1871) and his mother was Harriet Dunhill (1807–1882). He was one of seven siblings.

Although no surviving records have yet revealed exactly what Herbert did during the first 25 years of his long life, it is highly probable that he grew up immersed in Yorkshire's wool milling industry, which was the world's foremost centre of woollen manufacture during the nineteenth century. Herbert's later confidence in establishing the Timaru Clothing Factory and then promoting the ambitious Timaru Woollen Mill suggests he possessed more than a passing knowledge of textile production.

During Herbert's childhood, Wakefield and neighbouring Leeds were thriving centres of the woollen and worsted industries, where textile mills, engineering workshops and bustling markets dominated daily life. Although little is known of Herbert's early years, his later achievements suggest he received a good education and a sound grounding in the art of business. He would eventually demonstrate an impressive ability to adapt to changing circumstances, establishing ventures as diverse as woollen manufacturing, medical botany, private hospitals and the manufacture of plant-based health foods.

In the early 1890s, while living in New Zealand, Herbert claimed in newspaper articles that he had lived in Leeds, where he had trained as a medical botanist under the mentorship of his uncle, John Clapham. This is somewhat unusual, as his father's name was also John Clapham. Records show that his father was the master of the vessel The Friendship, based at Hull Harbour, Yorkshire. Captain John Clapham had nine siblings, including three brothers—George, William and Haigh—but no brother named John. However, this claim is not entirely surprising. Throughout his long life in New Zealand, many of Herbert's statements reported in the newspapers must be treated with a degree of circumspection.

Some time in the early 1870s, Herbert Clapham, aged about 25, immigrated to New Zealand with his wife, Matilda, aged 28, and their two small children.

The youngest was a baby, James Burnley Clapham, who was born on 15 March 1873 in England but died in Timaru, New Zealand, on 6 October 1874. If this is correct, it would mean the family sailed to New Zealand sometime between those dates. The older child was my grandfather, George Henry Clapham, who had been born in England in 1872.

Matilda's maiden name was Burnley. Her family came from the mill town of Batley in Yorkshire, where she and her sisters were skilled in the art of weaving wool—a talent that Herbert took advantage of during his early years in Timaru.

What Herbert did during his first ten years in New Zealand is unclear. But from 1882 his name started appearing in the local newspapers, and from that year onwards he featured regularly in advertisements and news stories for the next fifty years.

On 22 August 1882, some nine or ten years after his arrival in Timaru, the South Canterbury Times reported that local businessman Herbert Clapham had been "home" to England, visiting the cloth-weaving districts with a view to importing machinery for a wool processing factory he intended to build. However, these first plans for a woollen mill were apparently thwarted when he learned that a "large and influential" company had already formulated alternative plans to establish a tweed-weaving business in Timaru.

The report stated:

"Mr Clapham left the importation of his machinery in abeyance and instead had returned to Timaru to open the Timaru Clothing Factory. Mr Clapham will import Scottish and West of England tweeds at an extremely low rate with which he intends to make all types of clothing on his premises. The special feature of the new industry is that a customer may be measured for a suit or any garment and have them made to order within a few hours."

Herbert's trip to England and his return to Timaru can be verified by New Zealand shipping records showing that he arrived in Port Chalmers from London by steerage on 25 April 1882 aboard the square-rigged migrant sailing barque Sarah Bell, which had sailed from London on 2 March. Travelling with him was Sarah E. Burnley.

According to MyHeritage records, Sarah was Matilda's youngest sister. It appears that Herbert persuaded his sister-in-law, an experienced woollen weaver, to come to New Zealand to assist him with his new venture.

Archived census records from 1861, viewed through MyHeritage, show that the Burnley family of Batley, living at 45 Cobden Street, were heavily involved in Yorkshire's woollen industry. The mother, Hannah, and her eldest daughter were listed as "woollen powerloom weavers", while Matilda was recorded as a "woollen winder". Sarah was only ten years old at the time of the census but would no doubt have entered the woollen trade after finishing school.

On 22 August 1882, the new Timaru Clothing Factory was announced in a brief classified advertisement in the South Canterbury Times:

"Timaru Clothing Factory. Main North Road opposite Smith's Coal Yard. Support the new industry. Herbert Clapham, proprietor."

It can be seen from his first advertisements that Herbert was a gifted copywriter with a flair for promotion. He conveyed all the following detail in a classified advertisement:

"On my recent visit to the Mother Country, I was induced by my friends (who are large manufacturers of woollen goods), on my return to New Zealand, to start a factory, having for its object the means of supplying all kinds of men's, youths', and boys' clothing made to measure at the prices usually charged by other large factories to their wholesale clients. For example, should a man, youth or boy require a suit of clothes, he can come to my factory, select the material, have his measure taken, and in, say, 48 hours afterwards receive his clothes, on payment of the price charged by storekeepers in Timaru and elsewhere, being fully 30 per cent, or six shillings in the pound, cheaper. Thus, a suit of clothes made by tailors and charged, say, £5, my price would be £3 10s. The prices I intend charging will be so low that I feel sure no ready-made clothing shop will be able to compete."

Business must have boomed at first, with Herbert placing newspaper advertisements seeking machinists and tailors. In December 1882 he went into print to boast that he had secured the services of "Professor Buller, the eminent cutter, who stands unrivalled in both England and the Colonies." He added that "the most fastidious need not hesitate a moment." He also claimed that a new shipment of cloth had arrived from the West of England and Scotland, making his range of woollen goods the largest and most complete in South Canterbury.

However, in June of the following year, 1883, a notice appeared in the Timaru Herald advising:

"In consequence of the Journeymen Tailors' lock-out, they have purchased the tailoring business of Mr Herbert Clapham, and formed themselves into a Company, such to be called The Timaru Co-Operative Tailoring Company. The company will carry on the business in the old premises of Mr H. Clapham."

Herbert was still very much involved in the co-operative. Was this a clever move to work around a strike by tailors who were actively organising that year against poor working conditions and low pay?

He placed a notice in the South Canterbury Times:

"Herbert Clapham, in thanking his numerous patrons for past favours, desires to intimate that having received a first-class assortment of new materials, and in consequence of the recent strike among the tailors in Timaru, he has turned his extensive establishment into a co-operative company, who are prepared to execute all orders in a style that will defy comparison with any other firm in the Colony. Fit, workmanship, and material guaranteed, and the price charged will bring the best order-work within the reach of all classes of the community. The best workmen only employed on the premises."

He also announced that the business would trade under the name Herbert Clapham and Co. At the same time he launched another venture—the Timaru Ham, Bacon and Lard Company—and advertised that he was a buyer of such products.

The Herbert Clapham Timaru Clothing Company continued trading, but it appears Herbert had even larger ambitions when he left New Zealand for England once again on a very important mission. He had persuaded leading local businessmen to invest in his plans for a woollen mill. It appears from contemporary newspaper reports that the civic leaders of Timaru had been discussing the idea of such an enterprise for several years but had never made any practical progress.

In 1884 news broke of a new industry for the town. The Temuka Leader wrote in December of that year:

"It is not generally known that a new company for the purpose of establishing a woollen factory has been floated in Timaru and that tenders have been called for the erection of buildings for it, and that Mr Herbert Clapham has gone to England to procure the necessary plant."

It is noteworthy that around this time, on 20 September 1884, Matilda gave birth to a son, John James Herbert Clapham.

Herbert was away from New Zealand for nine months and, on his return, the Lyttelton Times picked up the story in its edition of 30 December 1885:

"It is now about three years since the idea of starting a woollen factory on a very small scale occurred to Mr Herbert Clapham, of Timaru. As this gentleman possessed a thorough practical knowledge of the subject, his idea was received with favour by a number of citizens, who, after much deliberation, resolved on the formation of a Company to carry out the ideas of Mr Clapham on a more extensive scale."

The article continued:

"Finally the Company is registered with a nominal capital of £10,000 ($2.5 million at today's value) and a good directory has been formed. It may suffice to state that the Company, about twelve months ago, sent Mr Clapham home to England where he was enabled to make satisfactory terms with the machine makers, and after some delay the major portion of the machinery has been shipped by the ship Lochnagar from London, the engine and some minor matters being forwarded subsequently by the barque Hudson."

The report went on:

"On arrival of the machinery by the Lochnagar, the work of setting it up will at once proceed, the Company having the advantage of the presence of four skilled operatives just imported under contract by Mr Clapham, and they, with other men under the superintendence of Mr Clapham, will begin the erection. At the recent general meeting of the Company it was resolved to increase the capital to £20,000. There is no doubt this enterprise is one of the most important ever initiated in South Canterbury, and all who are interested in the prosperity of Timaru will wish the Company the success which their pluck, energy and hopefulness deserve."

The Temuka Leader conveyed the region's optimism for the new venture:

"And now, perhaps, the most important matter connected with the woollen factory is whether it will prove a success or not. Of course it is a speculation on which a great deal depends, but one thing is in favour of the presumption that it will be a success and that is that every woollen factory in the colony is in a flourishing condition."

The Christchurch Star reported in January 1886:

"Mr Herbert Clapham, who initiated the Timaru Woollen Factory, and recently visited England in the Company's interest, has been appointed manager of the concern."

The Timaru Woollen Factory Company was opened in May 1886 with much fanfare. The Timaru Herald reported:

"Yesterday will long be remembered by all well-wishers of local industries in Timaru as the day on which the Timaru Woollen Factory Company's new buildings were formally opened, and their industry recognised as one of the principal in South Canterbury. It is now about two and a half years since the company was first formed, and there is no denying that the shareholders of it have met with signal success so far. The opening of the Timaru Woollen Factory certainly marks a new era in the history of Timaru."

Let us pause for a moment and reflect that this major investment in the future of the town of Timaru and the region of South Canterbury had been brought to fruition by the vision and determination of a man purporting to be an expert in the business of wool, who later in life made a dubious living claiming that he could cure tuberculosis and just about every other incurable disease of the day. But his colourful career as a healer still lay in the future as plans for the mill came to fruition in 1886.

Reporting on the opening of the factory, the Temuka Leader gave Herbert most of the credit:

"The machinery is working splendidly, and reflects the greatest credit on the manager of the factory, Mr Herbert Clapham."

However, it was only a matter of months before the local newspapers, in September 1886, broke the news:

"The Timaru Woollen Mill is in difficulties. It has temporarily suspended work on account of the position in which the directors find themselves, and because they cannot see their way to pay the next fortnight's wages."

That same month Herbert Clapham, the manager of the enterprise, was declared bankrupt.

The Timaru Herald carried the following notice:

"The District Court of Timaru and Oamaru. In the matter of The Bankruptcy Act 1883 and the bankruptcy of Herbert Clapham of Timaru, Woollen Manufacturer. Notice is hereby given that the said Herbert Clapham having been adjudicated a bankrupt in the said Court, the first general meeting of the creditors will be held at my Office, North Road, Timaru, on Thursday, the 23rd day of September, 1886. Dated this 17th day of September, 1886."

How much of the company's financial difficulties were attributable to its manager was never made clear, and we can only read between the lines.

The existing shareholders tried desperately, but unsuccessfully, to save their investment by forming a committee to consider establishing a new company to repurchase the mill. However, the Timaru Woollen Mill was rescued and given renewed life when a syndicate of North Island businessmen purchased the factory from the mortgagee. It went on to become a major textile manufacturer in New Zealand before merging into Alliance Textiles in 1960.

Herbert left Timaru bankrupt, but not broken—and he never again mentioned his experience in the woollen industry.

He surfaced again in the newspapers in the Wanganui Herald in December 1886, after he had been successful in his application for an auctioneer's licence. He must have been inspired in this direction while watching all his worldly possessions disappear beneath the auctioneer's hammer in Timaru. His advertisements were repeated in the Wanganui Herald through to May 1887, trading as 'G. H. Clapham and Co.' (his oldest son was George Henry), stating that: "We are prepared to receive goods of all descriptions for sale and on commission. Periodical sales held throughout the Wellington Provincial District, thereby affording special advantages to our clients for quickly disposing of any jobs or surplus stock submitted to us for sale."

The auctioneering advertisements eventually ceased and Herbert's newspaper trail went cold from May 1887 for a couple of years. His name next appeared in print in the New Zealand Herald in January 1889 in what the newspaper called the "most humiliating apology ever published in a newspaper".

The Auckland Star saw fit to comment on the Herald report: "The following is one of the most abject apologies we have ever come across. It is from the advertising columns of the New Zealand Herald—'I, the undersigned, Charles Gilligan, do hereby solemnly declare that everything I have said detrimental to the character of Mr Clapham, late of Wellington, were lies, maliciously invented by me, Charles Gilligan, to hurt the above-mentioned Herbert Clapham and I do confess having devised every known scheme to undermine his character, and ruin him for business, for which I humbly apologise while on my bended knees.'"

It appears Herbert and Charles Gilligan had been in business together as 'Gilligan and Clapham Advertising Agents', a company which was dissolved in August 1888. Exactly what prompted the apology remains a mystery.

Details of the business venture these two were involved in are described in a column in the New Zealand Times on 1 August 1888: "We have been shown a large and attractive advertising sheet published by Messrs Gilligan and Clapham of this city, to which they have given the name of The Eclipse Advertiser. In the centre of the sheet is a capital view of the City of Wellington produced in chromo-lithography by Willis, of Wanganui. Below this are two maps of the North and South Islands. Some useful information is given in the way of railway, tramway and omnibus timetables and fares, local letter deliveries and postal rates, the timetables of the Union Steamship Company, Shaw, Savill and Albion, and the New Zealand Shipping Company. Messrs Gilligan and Clapham have also prepared similar sheets for Dunedin, Auckland, Christchurch and Napier, and as they have arranged for a space in the central avenue of the Melbourne Exhibition, these sheets should be a good medium for advertisers. The sheets are capitally got up, and from their size, appearance, and novelty of design, are very effective."

It appears that this early attempt to attract advertisers to buy space on brochure-style maps and directories was unsuccessful, for there is no further mention of the venture.

In May 1889, Matilda gave birth to yet another son, Hector Charles. His birthplace is given as Devonport, Auckland.

Not long after this, Herbert (and presumably his growing family) turned up in Nelson. A historical retrospective in the Nelson Historical Society Journal reveals that Herbert arrived in Marlborough in early 1890, where he claimed he was a "herbal botanist, trained in Leeds by his uncle John Clapham". After coming to New Zealand (no date mentioned) he was reported to have spent time in Gisborne, Whangārei and New Plymouth and was then in Auckland for two years.

In March 1890 he advertised himself as a "Medical Botanist", specialising in blood, skin, kidney and urinary complaints, indigestion, liver complaints, premature decline, nervous debility and special diseases: "Patients can feel assured they will receive the advice of a man fitted by superior skill, the result of special study and long practice as a successful specialist."

This claim of being a trained medical botanist is of genuine interest. Medical botanists were, in many respects, the pharmacists of the health industry before the widespread development of pharmaceutical drugs. Medicinal herbs were commonly grown by botanists and supplied to doctors for prescription to their patients, a practice that remained widespread until the early twentieth century. A medical botanist was a specialist who studied plants specifically for their medicinal properties, bioactivity and application in treating disease. However, medical botany began to fall out of favour in mainstream Western medicine towards the middle of the twentieth century.

Whether or not Herbert reinvented himself as a medical botanist in order to front his latest money-making venture, or was in fact trained before he came to New Zealand as he claimed, we do not really know. What we do know is that his oldest son, George—my grandfather—carried on the medical botany business operating a successful business based in the main street of Auckland into the late 1930s.

It was in October 1891 that Herbert made the stunning claim that was to define him for the rest of his life. In newspapers around the country he placed the following public notice under the headline "CLAPHAM'S CONSUMPTION CURE".

Herbert, always the slick copywriter, wrote his own story as though it were news:

"It has recently been intimated that a new and successful method of treating pulmonary and constitutional diseases had been discovered by Mr Herbert Clapham, practising medical botanist, of Nelson, and with a view to proving its efficacy an offer was made to the City Council of treating any patient suffering from consumption nominated by them free of cost. The means of successfully carrying out this treatment have now been perfected, and Mr Clapham is now able to treat patients suffering from the above-mentioned diseases with every prospect of a favourable result. Of course the details of this method are kept private, but for general information it is sufficient to state that magnetism plays an important part. He employs a power over which he has complete control, utilising electricity in a peculiar manner, and by this wonderful power not only are the germs of the disease attacked and removed, but the system generally is restored to its pristine vigour."

The story continued:

"It is only after many years' study in hydro-electropathy and the science of killing disease that this method of treatment has been perfected, and in a very short time it will be made known throughout the whole world, when Mr Clapham will have the satisfaction of knowing that his labours of many years have not been spent in vain. A private hospital is in course of preparation for the special treatment of such cases and will shortly be ready to receive patients in Nelson. Consultation by letter free, on enclosing stamps for reply. Address: H. Clapham, Practising Medical Botanist, Bridge Street, Nelson."

The same notice appeared in newspapers around the country almost daily for several months and, in February 1892, Herbert announced the opening of his new Nelson Sanatorium, to be officially blessed with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by the Mayor and members of the Nelson City Council.

A sanatorium (or sanitarium) was historically a medical institution designed for long-term treatment, rehabilitation and rest, particularly for chronic diseases such as tuberculosis during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Usually situated in high-altitude, rural or sunny locations, these facilities relied on fresh air, sunshine and strict bed rest to treat patients. They acted as a hybrid between hospitals and health retreats.

Herbert was adept at preparing advertisements that appeared to be genuine news reports. A rather lengthy and verbose article about his new sanatorium read:

"After considerable trouble and diligent search for a suitable position and town possessing a climate necessary for the treatment of consumption, and all other pulmonary diseases, the Proprietor and Medical Officer of the Nelson Sanatorium, after many years of travelling, during which period he has touched almost all the civilized parts of the world, has selected Nelson as being the ideal spot. The climate of Nelson is simply perfection; being noted for its even and regular temperature; for the absence of fierce and sudden changes in the weather; for its mild and rational winters; for its delightful, exhilarating and healthy atmosphere. The proprietor, having satisfied himself that Nelson was in every respect suitable for the Clapham-combination treatment of consumption in all its stages, which he has discovered after many years of anxious study and research, realised the necessity of building a sanatorium for the special care, nursing, and scientific treatment of patients."

Let us stop here for a minute. Where did Herbert Clapham find the time to travel to "all parts of the civilised world"? When and where did he undertake those "years of anxious study and research”? Hadn't he just spend the last several years setting up a clothing factory and a woollen mill in Timaru? The records show that Herbert and his wife Matilda had by this time produced a family of four children. George Henry (my grandfather) would have been 18, James Henry had died as a baby, John James Herbert would have been six, and another son, Hector Charles, was just a toddler in 1889.

However, the Nelson Sanatorium appears to have done well at first, advertising its promises constantly through to November 1892:

“The Sanatorium is replete with every comfort, while the sanitary arrangements cannot be excelled, and patients receive every possible attention from trained nurses and servants engaged under the direct supervision of Mr Clapham. The success which has attended the Clapham Combination Cure of Consumption is being made known far and wide, and patients are coming from foreign countries to receive treatment. Of course, the details of the Clapham Combination mode of treatment are at present kept secret.”

The promises were endless:

“Persons suffering with any nervous disorders or any illness that flesh is heir to will find in Mr Clapham’s Botanico-Electro remedial agency a sure, safe, and speedy cure. In further consideration of the indoor patients of the Nelson Sanatorium, the proprietor places horses and carriages at their disposal to afford them an opportunity for easy outdoor exercise and to view the charming surrounding district of Nelson.”

However, things did not go as smoothly as Herbert’s copywriting, as he found himself defending his claims in the Nelson Magistrates Court on 5 July 1892, when Joseph Mallamo, a fisherman, was the plaintiff in relation to his wife’s unsuccessful treatment by Herbert.

Mary Ann Mallamo had an internal tumour for which two doctors agreed that an operation would be too dangerous. Mrs Mallamo, the court report said, “had turned to Mr Clapham who had examined her and prescribed medicines and pills. He had visited her every day for three weeks and she continued under his care for twenty-five weeks.” After a break of three months she then entered another three-month course of treatment.

Mrs Mallamo said she believed that she had been promised a cure for her tumour, but in fact it continued to grow larger. By this time the costs had risen to a level which Mr Mallamo found difficult to pay, and Mr Clapham had threatened to sue him in court for the money owing. This did not eventuate and, in response, Mr Mallamo decided to try to recover the money he had already paid Herbert through the courts.

Mrs Mallamo gave evidence that the tumour had increased, not decreased, and this was confirmed by the doctors. Herbert’s evidence was to the effect that he had not promised Mrs Mallamo a cure. The outcome was that Herbert was ordered to repay Mr Mallamo twenty-one pounds five shillings, being the amount actually paid, and costs of eight pounds ten shillings.

In April 1892 Herbert branched out by floating a new company called the Swiss Alpine Soap Company Limited, posting a prospectus seeking capital of £3000 in 3000 shares of £1 each, of which 350 shares were fully paid and issued to Herbert Clapham in payment for all his “plant and appliances”.

The prospectus said the company was being formed for the purpose of taking over Mr Clapham’s Toilet Soap Works, then in operation as a going concern. Mr Clapham was willing to relinquish this industry owing to his profession as a medical botanist necessitating that all his attention be given to the increasing number of patients being treated for consumption and other complaints.

The blurb, typical of Herbert’s compelling writing style, said his toilet soaps were already a “profitable, going concern” and that before long these “superior toilet soaps will be in general use and supersede all the imported soaps now carrying a duty of 25 per cent.”

The prospectus named several prominent Nelsonians as provisional directors of the company. Then, in the Nelson Evening Mail on 25 May, a notice appeared advertising a meeting of “all dissatisfied shareholders in Clapham’s Swiss Alpine Soap Company”.

Meanwhile, advertisements for the Nelson Sanatorium continued to appear daily in the newspapers. He also ran advertisements promoting “Turkish and other baths, now open daily at Bridge Street, Nelson”.

It seems Herbert's office, specialist baths and botanical dispensary were based in the town centre of Nelson, while the sanatorium was established at a wooded hillside property known at the time as 'The Hermitage', a substantial residence in Van Diemen Street. Van Diemen Street occupied an enviable position on the lower slopes of Nelson's eastern hills, only a few minutes' walk from the commercial heart of the city, yet sufficiently elevated to enjoy fresh sea breezes, abundant sunshine and commanding views across the town towards Tasman Bay. Lined with substantial villas set within generous gardens, it was regarded as one of Nelson's more desirable residential streets.

For Herbert, the location was ideally suited to the philosophy behind his venture. Victorian medicine placed great emphasis on fresh air, tranquillity and healthy surroundings, particularly in the treatment of tuberculosis and other chronic illnesses.

However, the Clapham bubble burst yet again when The Colonist, a Nelson newspaper, on 9 December 1892, posted brief notice regarding a meeting of creditors in the estate of H. Clapham. It appearsed Herbert had neglected to pay his advertising accounts, among other debts, when the Marlborough Express ran this notice the same week:

"Bankruptcy: Herbert Clapham, herbalist, of Nelson, has filed his petition for bankruptcy with liabilities of £1183 14s, and assets of £810. There are two Blenheim creditors; this unfortunate newspaper's proprietors once more."

On 25 January 1893 Herbert was declared bankrupt yet again, just days after his wife and youngest son had departed Nelson by steamer.

On 26 January notice was given that, in the matter of the bankruptcy of Herbert Clapham, medical herbalist, of Nelson, he had applied for a discharge, which would be heard on 22 February. However, on that date the judge declined to grant the discharge "on account of his not keeping proper books".

In March notices were posted advertising auctions of goods from the bankrupt estate of H. Clapham, to be held at the rented property in Van Diemen Street. Under the hammer went every item of the family's possessions and household furniture, including ornaments, books, bedding, wall mirrors, bedsteads, chairs, couches, tables and curtains; a piano, a double-barrelled gun; and a buggy with three horses "broken to single and double harness".

On 4 March the Nelson Evening Mail carried the following advertisement:

"To Let: The well-known premises in Bridge Street recently occupied by Mr H. Clapham, consisting of house, shop, Turkish and other baths; a soap factory with complete working plant; three-stall stable and sheds."

The property in Van Diemen Street was also advertised for rent. Herbert and his family were left homeless and penniless and without any of the comforts and accoutrements of prosperity they had accumulated during their time in Nelson.

After a few months out of the spotlight, awkwardly worded advertisements started appearing in the Manawatū region in January:

"Nature's Remedies: Mr J. Hepworth, Eclectic Medical Herbal Specialist (Twelve years' practice). The attention of the public of Feilding and district is directed to his Dispensary and Consulting Room, The Square, next the Club Hotel, Palmerston, where the benefit of his advice and medicine may repay a thousand times the effort to get there. Mr Hepworth visits Ashhurst on Wednesdays for the benefit of his patients, and may be consulted at Mr Clapham's, from 10 to 4, on that day. Note: The Square, Palmerston North."

These advertisements ran for weeks unchanged. Was this a clever means for Herbert to continue operating while bankrupt?

If Herbert was working secretly behind the Hepworth façade, a large and incredibly verbose advertisement appeared in the Wairarapa Daily Times on 16 May 1893, announcing loud and clear that Herbert Clapham was back in full flight—and on a mission.

"Theatre Royal, Masterton: Clapham's Health Mission. Wairarapa season commencing Monday. Mr Clapham from the Nelson Sanatorium, and Hydro-Electropathic and Botanic Institute, has now the honour to announce to the people of Masterton and District, that, after considerable difficulty he has been successful in organising a Mission to help the Needy Sick, and for that purpose will give Lecture Entertainments in your town, of a pleasing character, introducing Music, Song and Drama by a select and powerful company of 15 talented artists, in their Grand Drawing-Room Entertainments. Sketches specially written for the occasion, staged up to date, with all the latest mechanical effects, and scenery specially painted for the tour. The whole forming the most brilliant organised entertainments that have ever visited your district. Pronounced by the Southern Press to be the brightest, happiest, most unique home of home amusement and refined enjoyment. Its great object is to help the Poor Sick to regain health, free of cost to the individual. The whole of the proceeds (except bare actual expenses) are devoted to a fund for that purpose. Come one! Come all! and help me in this great cause of Suffering Humanity, as it is easy for the many to help the few. Popular prices will be charged. Reserved Seats: Three Shillings."

Offering a measure of editorial support, the Daily Times news pages gave the advertising blurb added credibility and also revealed that Herbert was taking advantage of the theatrical success of his daughter-in-law May Clapham's family, the Thorntons, who were at the time a successful vaudeville and burlesque troupe. May was the wife of his oldest son George.

The newspaper wrote:

"A little information concerning Mr Herbert Clapham and his Health Mission will, we are sure, interest our readers, as a preface to the visit of that gentleman to Masterton at the beginning of next week. Mr Clapham is the successful founder of the Nelson Hydro-Electropathic and Botanic Institute, associated with which is the Nelson Sanatorium, a handsome and extensive establishment, beautifully furnished and fitted with every appliance and requisite necessary to grapple with disease under Mr Clapham's system of treatment. The Sanatorium is also surrounded by most charming grounds, tastefully laid out, the whole affording an unequalled recreative retreat for those who surrender themselves to the proprietor's restorative influence.

"Mr Clapham has latterly opened a branch in Willis Street, Wellington, but he considers that he can do more good to humanity by bringing his treatment for morbid, pulmonary, and constitutional diseases right to the thresholds of sufferers. It is this which is inducing him to come to Masterton, and as a means of introducing his mission and of bringing it prominently under the notice of the public he gives a superior drawing-room entertainment of a most attractive character. Indeed, the following names are a voucher for the excellence of the organisation: Messrs Claude Hennegan, Leonard De Vere, A. Lovell, Augustus Marks, W. Melvin, and the Misses Annie Montrose, May Travers, Amy Vaughan, Daisy Thornton, and Lily Mercer.

"It may be said of Mr Clapham that he possesses numerous testimonials, including a letter from the Rev. Father Mahoney, of Nelson, and that as he stops some weeks in each town visited during his tour, there is ample time to test the genuineness of the cures he effects. Nervous and organic diseases, epilepsy, and consumption are his specialties, we might add."

News of Clapham's Mission went nationwide when the New Zealand Mail in early June enthused:

"A clever combination of variety artists known as the Clapham Health Mission Company has been showing in Masterton for the past week. The proceeds of the entertainments are stated to be devoted to a fund for assisting the sick poor, and enabling them to take advantage of the special treatment of Mr H. Clapham, of the Nelson Sanatorium."

On 19 June the advertising was toned down a little as Clapham's Health Mission Entertainment held a talent competition at the Bijou Theatre in Wellington, with admission set at sixpence. On 13 July the proprietors of the Theatre Royal in Masterton took Herbert to court seeking £18 6s owed for theatre hire.

The newspapers followed up:

"Some weeks ago a Health Mission Company visited Masterton. Besides entertaining select audiences with high-kicking and funny business, the company dispensed patent medicines galore, which were to cure all manner of diseases. The mission was to have lasted some weeks, but for obvious reasons it was brought to a sudden termination a few days after it commenced. The company left with the 'best wishes' of a number of creditors for their future prosperity. The sequel to the visit is that judgment has been given in the Masterton Resident Magistrate's Court against H. Clapham, dispenser, of Wellington, for the rent of theatre and gas, and £1 4s for hire of the piano."

On 15 July 1893, at a meeting of the Nelson Borough Council, a letter was tabled by Mr F. J. Humphreys stating that he wished to dispel a rumour that he had been cured of consumption at "Mr Clapham's establishment", wishing to state that this was not true, for he had not been cured.

On 15 August 1893, in the Nelson District Court, Herbert again applied unsuccessfully to be released from bankruptcy. However, he did have some supporters. The Evening Post reported on 31 August 1893:

"Some people at Nelson have petitioned for an amendment of the Medical Practitioners' Act to enable Herbert Clapham to continue the practice of his profession as a medical botanist."

Herbert laid low for a while but, on 27 December 1893, a brief public notice appeared in the Hawera and Normanby Star: "A Card: H. Clapham from Nelson Sanatorium. Medical Specialist. Regent Street, Hawera."

But just two months later, in February 1894, Herbert was back in action with this bold public announcement in the Wanganui Herald:

"Mr Clapham, from Nelson Sanatorium, Practising Medical Botanist and Hydro-Electro Therapist, will commence practice at his Institute, corner of Hull Street and Maria Place, Wanganui. Specialist for the Scientific Treatment of Acute and Chronic Nervous, Complicated, Special and Organic Diseases; Rheumatism, Sciatica, Fits, and Consumption. Mr Clapham, who is the founder of Clapham's Combination Treatment of Morbid, Pulmonary, and Wasting Diseases, has all the latest medical appliances requisite for the successful carrying out of the same. Sufferers from Blood and Skin Diseases, Kidney and Urinary Affections, would do well to consult Mr Clapham."

From a photograph of Herbert Clapham found on an archived front page of the Truth newspaper from 1929 I used AI to create what he may have looked like as a younger man.

Herbert could not seem to settle. Two months later, in April, he ran a near-identical advertisement in the Taranaki Herald, this time with his "Institute" based in New Plymouth.

In May, the "Institute" had shifted to Greymouth with the same promises of incredible medical treatments and, this time, offering "special accommodation for invalids placed inside the Institute, and such patients will receive every medical comfort and attention from trained nurses and servants, engaged under the direct supervision of Mr Clapham."

Herbert must have found richer pickings and conditions more to his liking on the West Coast, with his advertisement repeated in local newspapers almost every day for nearly two years. In July 1896 he shifted base from Greymouth to Hokitika, with his last advertisement on the West Coast printed in the Kumara Times on 29 December 1896.

After New Year 1897, all Herbert's advertising ceased. He seemed to have gone to ground. Nothing more was printed about Herbert Clapham's activities in New Zealand for the next ten years.

But he hadn't gone into hiding at all, instead he had gone across the Tasman to ply his trade in Australia. In December 1906, his name started appearing again in the New Zealand press classifieds, and it was more of the same, albeit with new credentials.

This time he was promoting himself as: "Herbert Clapham, Consulting Herbal Practitioner from East St Kilda, Melbourne. Late Proprietor and Superintendent of the Bellevue Sanatorium and Hydro-Electropathic and Botanic Institute, the Mount View Botanic Institute of Kew, Melbourne, and formerly of the Nelson Sanatorium, Nelson, New Zealand."

He placed advertisements in the Manawatū newspapers advising that he had commenced practice in Main Street, Palmerston North.

Bbefore we continue from here, we need to go back a few years and head across the Tasman to trace Herbert's activities during the previous decade.

In March 1901, the Ballarat Star, a newspaper based in central Victoria, reported on Herbert Clapham practising as the Medical Superintendent of the Bellevue Consumptive Sanatorium in the small town of Moama on the banks of the Murray River, directly opposite the larger town of Echuca.

The Bellevue Sanatorium was of Herbert's own design and he was going about his usual quasi-medical modus operandi, placing advertisements making claims of medical cures that newspapers then followed up in their news columns.

For example, the Mount Alexander Mail noted in May 1901: "It will be seen from his notice in another column that Mr Herbert Clapham is fully prepared to cure consumption, fits, and complicated diseases."

But Herbert's road was not without its bumps and, in August 1901, we find him appearing in the Moama Police Court charged with a breach of the Medical Act of New South Wales.

The Ballarat Star was at the court: "The Moama Police Court was engaged until midnight yesterday in dealing with charges preferred against Herbert Clapham, proprietor of a building called the Bellevue Sanatorium. The accused, who is a herbalist and has been lecturing about the country in aid of the 'sick poor', was first charged with a breach of the Medical Act of the State of New South Wales. The police evidence was to the effect that the accused's name did not appear upon the list of registered practitioners, but that he carried on a building in Moama where people paid for medical treatment. The prosecution arose from the fact that a man named Godfrey had died there and, with the accused being unable to give a certificate of death, an inquest had to be held.

"Dr Eakins gave evidence that the accused had informed him that he was not a duly qualified practitioner. After consideration, the bench decided to dismiss the case, though the chairman said that the accused had been perilously near a contravention of the law.

"A second charge, that Mr Clapham, being a person advertising that he treated patients at a certain house, to wit the Moama Sanatorium, had not printed on all such advertisements his full Christian name and surname, and had not the same upon the said building, was then heard. Voluminous evidence was given, and it was brought out that although the accused had his name on the walls inside the building, it did not appear on the outside. Mr Nathan, defending Mr Clapham, admitted a technical offence, but considered it infinitesimal. The bench considered that the letter of the law had certainly been contravened and it would be compelled to impose the minimum penalty of £20, but at the same time indicated that a memorial addressed to the proper authorities would very probably result in a material reduction of the fine."

This brush with the authorities appears to have put a handbrake on Herbert's activities and he seems to have moved on from the Bellevue, where his trail becomes even more convoluted.

In the People's Weekly, a small newspaper based in the town of Moonta on the coast of the Spencer Gulf, west of Adelaide, there is an advertisement in July 1904 announcing: "Mr Herbert Clapham, the eminent Hydro-Electropathic and Consulting Herbal Practitioner from Melbourne and Adelaide, is revisiting Moonta and may be consulted at the Globe Hotel. Mr Clapham will lecture at Victoria Hall, Moonta Mines, on Monday evening on Health. Silver Coin Admission."

The only reference I have been able to locate to the Botanic Institute of Melbourne and Adelaide appears in the Burra Record of 6 July 1904: "We are requested to call special attention to the advertisement in another column, announcing that Mr Bretnall of Clapham's Botanic Institute will deliver a lecture at the Burra Institute this Wednesday evening. Also that Mr Bretnall may be consulted at the Kooringa Hotel on the two following days. The Botanic Institute is not an institution having its locale in some of the other States or abroad, but in Adelaide. This fact should weigh with those who desire to have their medicines at first hand from men who by an extensive enterprise give a guarantee of their responsibility. Wherever Mr Bretnall or his partner have lectured and consulted along the north line, a large number of patients have put themselves in their hands for treatment. Both the partners are men who have devoted their lives to the study of natural remedies known as the 'botanic system'."

It should be noted that later, in 1906, W. Bretnall, as a member of the Australian Union of Herbalists, was instrumental in establishing the Queensland branch of the union and eventually, as its president, campaigned for herbalists to be recognised as medical practitioners.

In November 1904, Herbert Clapham appeared to have found a new way to market his services and was billed as the manager of The Grand Rational Sacred Concert in an advertisement in the Adelaide Advertiser, which read:

"Under the direction of the Rational Sacred Concert Organisation. Produced with Dramatic, Spectacular, and Mechanical Effects. The most powerful and attractive combined cast of Musical, Vocal and Instrumental Selections comprising over 50 illustrated items, by leading Members of the Dramatic, Musical, and Vaudeville Profession."

A Sacred Concert was typically a musical performance featuring religious music, designed to blend religious devotion with concert-hall performance. Rationalist organisations became increasingly prominent during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, promoting science, reason and free thought while critiquing the influence of superstition and religious dogma.

How Herbert's Sacred Concert fared is not mentioned in the press. Six months later, in August 1905, Herbert was in Broken Hill advertising himself as "Australia's most eminent consulting herbal practitioner", this time giving his credentials as "from the Botanic Institute of Melbourne and Adelaide".

Herbert appears to have found some traction in the Broken Hill area and was still giving consultations up until November 1905. He also appears to have found a way to blend his promises of medical cures with vaudeville-style entertainment.

The Barrier Miner reported: "A concert and magic lantern entertainment organised by Mr Herbert Clapham was given last night in Heggarty's Hall, South Broken Hill. The entertainment was very poorly attended. Popular songs were given, and Mr Clapham lectured on 'Health'. The singers, especially Mrs Holmes' rendition of 'The Lily of Laguna', were worthy of special mention."

From late 1905 Herbert Clapham's name abruptly disappeared from the Australian newspaper columns and, a year later, in December 1906, he reappeared on the New Zealand scene, this time in Palmerston North where he had set up consulting rooms.

Once again he began an extensive advertising campaign as he toured the towns of the lower North Island delivering "his famous lecture, The Battle of Life," and offering consultations in local hotel rooms.

It appeared that Palmerston North was not the most salubrious address and, by July 1907, he was claiming to represent the "Wellington Botanic Institute" and had taken his show on the road to Auckland. As he toured the northern towns he promoted himself as being from the "Auckland branch of the Clapham Botanic Institute".

From September 1908 he was based on Queen Street, Onehunga, where he invited "all discouraged and dissatisfied sufferers, who have been treated without receiving a cure, to call on him. It will cost them nothing for a consultation, and he will be pleased to have a chat and tell you frankly what can be done for you. Mr Clapham cures internal and external ailments without cutting or operations. The afflicted, no matter how, should not neglect to avail themselves of this opportunity to consult and get the advice of one of the world's most eminent and successful Herbal Practitioners absolutely free. Consumption—Mr Clapham's success in the treatment of this disease is unparalleled."

From this base, at the age of sixty, Herbert embarked on yet another round of exhausting schemes to persuade unwell to subscribe to his promised cures.

In September he travelled to the town of Paeroa — then a bustling goldfields hub — where the local newspaper, the Ohinemuri Gazette, obliged him: "We understand that Mr H. Clapham intends giving a health lecture on The Battle of Life in the Criterion Theatre on September 16th. The subject is one that Mr Clapham has given a great deal of study to and, being a fluent and entertaining speaker, we have no doubt a large number will take advantage of the chance of hearing him. There will not be any charge made for admission, but a collection will be taken up for some deserving case of distress in the district."

Herbert advertised regularly in the Gazette, making fortnightly visits to Paeroa through to March 1909, where he worked from a local boarding house, using the old ploy of providing "free consultations". This allowed him to make his diagnoses and offer his "cures" He continually made the claim that "Mr Clapham's success in the treatment of consumption is unparalleled".

Herbert may actually have believed in his curative abilities and may have been seeking the credibility of his peers when he ran a small notice in the New Zealand Herald: "Applications are invited from duly qualified medical men to watch, discuss, or join in my completed Progressive Oxy-Hydro Combination Treatment for Pulmonary or Constitutional Phthisis. H. Clapham. Queen Street, Onehunga."

Whether any "medical men" responded is not known.

Around this time Herbert was making and marketing a health elixer he called Vig Ora, "the wonder health breakfast food"; advertised by grocer stores as:"Dainty, delicious and highly nutritive. 1 shilling 2d per package."

It was in January 1909 that Herbert branched out into another business venture by establishing the Healtheries Manufacturing Company, apparently in partnership with a miller named Hector Bloor. He advertised for sales staff, rented offices in the city, and promoted his first Healtheries product—Grist Ola.

Once more, his copywriting skills came to the fore:

"Preserve bodily strength by using Grist Ola, New Zealand's ideal breakfast food. Gives power, energy, and vim. Dainty, delicious and highly nutritive. One pound of Grist Ola contains more real nutriment than three pounds of the best beef, mutton, or superfine white flour. Makes you feel fit for anything. Easily digested, sustaining, and nourishing. A boon to persons advanced in age, invalids, delicate children and all who suffer from indigestion, debility, etc. Grist Ola porridge recommended for use in every home. 3 lb packet is obtainable from all grocers. Wholesale from the Healtheries Manufacturing Co., Onehunga."

Herbert must have made friends at the Ohinemuri Gazette, the newspaper in June 1909 seeing fit to editorialise: "We have received from the Healtheries Manufacturing Company, Onehunga, a sample package of an ideal breakfast food called Grist Ola. It is a specially prepared combination of the finest selected whole grain, blended with a full proportion of the choicest whole wheat berry, of the same high quality as at present used by the British and American Health Food Reform Association. The manufacturers claim that it makes a complete diet in itself alone, capable of sustaining life to healthy, vigorous action and building up the body generally, because it contains the right proportions of actual nutriment. It is easy to digest and the most delicate constitutions can use it freely. Grist Ola is strongly recommended, and can be tested by the highest medical authorities as a perfect food for daily use by all families in every home. It is sold in three-pound packages, and may be had from W. J. Adams' store at the retail price of one shilling per package."

It must have been costing money to distribute those three-pound packages of Grist Ola around the country, so in August 1909 Herbert advertised in the Auckland newspapers to buy a "ketch or small schooner, about 25 tons".

Grist Ola appears to have been Herbert's take on granola, which had been invented by Dr James Caleb Jackson, who created "granula" at his health spa in Dansville, New York, in 1863. Made of dense Graham flour, the dough was baked, broken apart, baked again, and required soaking in milk overnight before eating. In the 1880s, Dr John Harvey Kellogg developed his own oat-and-wheat-based version of the cereal, initially calling it "granula". To avoid a lawsuit from Jackson, Kellogg renamed his creation "granola".

From the middle of 1909 the advertisements for Grist Ola appeared no more.

What other products the company produced is unclear. However, in 1931, a report in the New Zealand Herald's Stocks and Shares column stated that a new company, Healtheries Limited, had been registered in Auckland to take over the business of Herbert Clapham and Hector Bloor, millers. Capital: £1500 in £1 shares.

Herbert was a founder of a company called Healtheries while at the same time promoting his ability to cure a number of diseases.

In November 1911, a familiar advertisement appeared in the King Country Chronicle, which occasioned the newspaper to comment: "As will be seen by advertisement in another column, Mr Herbert Clapham has resumed practice in this district as a hydro-electropathic and consulting botanic practitioner. Mr Clapham, who has had very wide experience in both Australia and New Zealand, may be consulted on all diseases free of charge at his consulting rooms, Rora Street, Te Kuiti."

The advertisements continued until May 1912, when we catch a glimpse of another side of Herbert's character. Then aged sixty-four, he was named as co-respondent in a divorce case between Arthur Leopold Raven and Jessie Carr Raven. The reporting is vague, but it appears that John James Herbert Clapham, son of the co-respondent Herbert Clapham, gave damning evidence of his father's conduct with the respondent, as a result of which his father and mother had separated.

Herbert's behaviour in this regard is supported by a recorded interview I made with his granddaughter, my Aunt Aimée, not long before her death in 2003. She told me how Herbert abandoned his wife and children and went off to Hollywood in 1920. He was by this time seventy-two years old.

I asked whether her grandfather was an adventurer and whether he was attracted to the glamour of what was happening in Hollywood at that time. Aimée, who had already made it clear to me that she had no time for her grandfather and did not really want to talk about him, answered reluctantly:

"Yes, well, no. He was attracted to the glamour of the ladies probably. He was a good-looking man, absolutely immaculate. Always immaculate. He was tall; he didn't carry excess weight. He was a great advertisement for the way of life he taught, as far as health went. He was very successful in that manner."

I asked her if Herbert deserted his wife Matilda, her grandmother, who in later life was living with her son George's family in Auckland.

She answered: "Yes, he did. He only came back home when he wanted assistance from Dad. He didn't live with us. But he would come over on these jaunts and he stayed with us. He didn't appeal to me. He was a very, what should I say, enterprising man. He took himself off to America and left my grandmother with her two sons. But every time he overspent and got into difficulties he came home to my father, his son, and at that stage he was getting on in life, and Dad would have to help him on his way again. That is why I had such a distinct dislike for him. So my dad, instead of finishing his doctorate, went on with the herbal business. It was the Clapham Botanic Herbal Institute. That is what my father ran until he died."

It is important that I add here that I did ask Aimée if Herbert's health business was a confidence trick of some kind. She answered emphatically: "Oh no, it was a very good thing."

Before we attempt to follow Herbert to Hollywood, we note that by June 1912 it would appear Herbert's marriage to Matilda was definitely on the rocks. The Dominion reported from the Lower Hutt Court:

"Matilda Clapham applied for a separation order with maintenance against Herbert Clapham. The applicant stated that she had lived apart from her husband for twenty years, earning her living by nursing. The application was granted for separation, with five shillings per week maintenance."

Around this time, in 1911, Herbert had applied to patent a device for the generation of gas for homes. This ties in with his eldest son George and his family living in Te Kūiti — at a time a booming frontier town in the King Country — running a gas appliance business. Aunt Aimée confirmed this during our 2003 discussion:

"My father set up a gas business. Gas was just coming in and he set up a shop in Te Kūiti where they had all the necessary things to promote gas for cooking, heating and lighting."

Aimée was born in Te Kūiti in 1908 and her younger brother Ellis (my father) was born there in 1912. It would appear that Herbert was living with George's family in Te Kūiti at this time.

If we go back a couple of years, we discover that the Clapham Gas Light Manufacturing and Agency Company started doing business with great promise in 1909, visiting Auckland to demonstrate its "very superior light, heat and gas producing plant".

But in October 1910 the company featured in the papers for another reason—unpaid debts, resulting in it being placed in liquidation the following month. Among the items offered for sale by tender was a Clapham Gas Generating Plant valued at £200, the equivalent of around $44,000 today. One of the company's creditors advertised for sale by tender a promissory note with an outstanding balance of £385 (about $85,000 today), from an original value of £900.

Included in the liquidation was the sale of a boat (a ketch named Waitangi) and, as a result of a later court case regarding its sale, we learn that Herbert was in fact a director of the gas company. This must have been the boat he bought for his Healtheries business.

Throughout this period Herbert continued to "consult" as a "Hydro-Electropathic and Medical Botanic Practitioner, late proprietor and superintendent of the Bellevue and Mount View Sanatoriums of Australia", mostly advertising in the King Country Chronicle until the gas company's collapse in 1912.

After that he was based in Auckland with premises at 480 Queen Street, operating as the Clapham Botanic Institute and advertising a "100 Years' Life Elixir", which promised to make people "be young, look young, feel young all the time" for two shillings and sixpence a bottle. This was probably the business he established with his son George, which operated in Auckland for several years. It was also known as Clapham Botanic Remedies. The business was still operating in Queen Street in 1930.

In August 1913 he was back in the news nationwide, with all the major newspapers reacting to a claim that he had discovered and perfected a cure for tuberculosis and had presented a petition to Parliament, signed by no fewer than 7,110 others, urging the Government to support him.

The newspapers reported:

"A somewhat unusual petition was submitted to Parliament this week by Mr Macdonald (MP for Bay of Plenty) on behalf of Herbert Clapham, medical botanist, of Auckland, and 7,110 others. The petitioner states that he, not being a duly qualified medical practitioner, finds his humane efforts clashing with the interests of the medical profession, although he knows himself to be qualified to place the cure of consumption before the world at large for the benefit of suffering humanity. He explains that the processes and method of his cure are radically different from the treatment hitherto recognised and employed, and entail an initial expense which is beyond his means. He therefore prays that the Government grant a sum sufficient to enable him to meet the initial outlay or, alternatively, that the Government undertake the treatment of consumptives according to his methods and formulas under his direction and, if successful after a fair and satisfactory test has been made, recompense him by bonus or otherwise. He also requests the Government to grant him immunity from any prosecution to which he may be liable through the contravening of certain Acts in demonstrating his cure."

In September the Public Petitions Committee made the non-committal recommendation that the petition be referred to the Government. No report of its eventual outcome has been found in the newspaper archives.

While the petition was making its way through Parliament, Herbert was busy organising a benefit concert, by permission of the Mayor of Auckland, to assist the families and dependants of the recent Huntly mining disaster. The Huntly disaster was the 1914 mine explosion in which forty-three miners died on 12 September 1914 after an acetylene cap lamp ignited methane gas, leading to a difficult recovery operation that lasted for weeks.

In a major public relations coup, the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, accepted an invitation to open the event with a speech, followed by "an excellent programme of songs, recitations and other items". The concert concluded with a "lecturette" by Herbert Clapham entitled "The Struggle for Life."

The event appears to have been a fundraising success for the Huntly relief fund, and perhaps for Herbert Clapham as well, running for six nights across a number of Auckland venues, including the Opera House, before concluding at the King George Theatre, where it was announced that the performances had raised a net profit of £120 for the widows and orphans of Huntly.

In December 1915 Herbert was running another benefit performance, this time for the "needy sick and dependants of the White Island Disaster", in the Auckland Town Hall. The White Island disaster of September 1914 involved a catastrophic crater wall collapse that triggered a massive mudflow, destroying a sulphur mining camp and killing ten workers.

Sometime in 1916 Herbert Clapham packed his bags and sailed to America. He was away from New Zealand for fourteen years. It is difficult to find much detail of what he did there, but family anecdotes suggest that he went to California and promoted his ideas on health and medicine around the emerging motion picture industry based in the Los Angeles suburb of Hollywood.

Aunt Aimée, in her conversation with me twenty-three years ago, recalled:

"My father was to be a doctor, but our grandfather went to America, and set up this health and beauty establishment in the early days of Hollywood. He called it some sort of sanatorium and they had Roman rings and horizontal bars and Turkish baths, and dietary advice was the main thing. Some of his clients were very famous actors and actresses. I can remember Bette Davis being one."

While he was away, Herbert's wife, Matilda Clapham, died in 1921, aged seventy-six. She is buried in Waikaraka Cemetery, Onehunga (Area 1, Block J, Lot No. 145A).

It is not until Herbert returned to New Zealand in late 1929, aged eighty-two, that we learn a little of his experiences abroad from a public notice in the Bay of Plenty Times:

"Clapham's Botanic Institute, established 1889, takes pleasure in announcing that special arrangements have been made whereby the founder of the Institute, Mr Herbert Clapham, will visit Tauranga on August 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Sufferers in this district are fortunate in having this unique opportunity of consulting a gentleman so eminent in his profession and whose 50 years' experience and sympathetic service has resulted in thousands being restored to perfect health when all hope had gone. Mr Herbert Clapham, the Founder of Clapham's Botanic Institute, has but recently returned from America after an absence of 14 years, during which he was principal in charge of The Mountain Glen Sanatorium, Sierra Madre, California, the most successful institution for the treatment of all chest, throat and lung troubles, rheumatism, arthritis, kidney, liver and stomach troubles, specialising in TB, epilepsy and constitutional diseases."

In California during the late 1910s, healthy living was a cornerstone of what became known as the Progressive Era, emphasising the "back-to-nature" movement. It encouraged time outdoors, wholesome food, good sanitation and personal hygiene.

It would appear that Herbert, always the entrepreneur, recognised the opportunities presented by this movement and took himself and his ideas to the forefront of the trend. The 1920s marked a major shift in American consumer culture as beauty culture and wellness became closely intertwined, heavily promoted by the movie magazines of the day. While spa treatments had begun as medical therapies, they quickly evolved into fashionable luxuries, particularly among the wealthy and the growing middle class.

Southern California, including the Hollywood area, was also an early twentieth-century centre for health sanitariums because of its dry, warm climate, attracting affluent patients seeking treatment for tuberculosis and other chronic illnesses.

The only reference I have been able to find regarding the Mountain Glen Sanatorium is this
small advertisement in the Sierra Madre News, dated 4 February 1921.

In November 1911, a familiar advertisement appeared in the King Country Chronicle, which occasioned the newspaper to comment: "As will be seen by advertisement in another column, Mr Herbert Clapham has resumed practice in this district as a hydro-electropathic and consulting botanic practitioner. Mr Clapham, who has had very wide experience in both Australia and New Zealand, may be consulted on all diseases free of charge at his consulting rooms, Rora Street, Te Kuiti."

The advertisements continued until May 1912, when we catch a glimpse of another side of Herbert's character. Then aged sixty-four, he was named as co-respondent in a divorce case between Arthur Leopold Raven and Jessie Carr Raven. The reporting is vague, but it appears that John James Herbert Clapham, son of the co-respondent Herbert Clapham, gave damning evidence of his father's conduct with the respondent, as a result of which his father and mother had separated.

Herbert's behaviour in this regard is supported by a recorded interview I made with his granddaughter, my Aunt Aimée, not long before her death in 2003. She told me how Herbert abandoned his wife and children and went off to Hollywood in 1920. He was by this time seventy-two years old.

I asked whether her grandfather was an adventurer and whether he was attracted to the glamour of what was happening in Hollywood at that time. Aimée, who had already made it clear to me that she had no time for her grandfather and did not really want to talk about him, answered:

"Yes, well no. He was attracted to the glamour of the ladies probably. He was a good-looking man, absolutely immaculate. Always immaculate. He was tall; he didn't carry excess weight. He was a great advertisement for the way of life he taught, as far as health went. He was very successful in that manner."

I asked her if Herbert deserted his wife Matilda, her grandmother, who in later life was living with her son George's family in Auckland.

She answered:

"Yes, he did. He only came back home when he wanted assistance from Dad. He didn't live with us. But he would come over on these jaunts and he stayed with us. He didn't appeal to me. He was a very, what should I say, enterprising man. He took himself off to America and left my grandmother with her two sons. But every time he overspent and got into difficulties he came home to my father, his son, and at that stage he was getting on in life, and Dad would have to help him on his way again. That is why I had such a distinct dislike for him. So my dad, instead of finishing his doctorate, went on with the herbal business. It was the Clapham Botanic Herbal Institute. That is what my father ran until he died."

It is important that I add here that I did ask Aimée if Herbert's health business was a confidence trick of some kind. She answered emphatically:

"Oh no, it was a very good thing."

Before we attempt to follow Herbert to Hollywood, we learn that by June 1912 it would appear Herbert's marriage to Matilda was definitely on the rocks. The Dominion reported from the Lower Hutt Court:

"Matilda Clapham applied for a separation order with maintenance against Herbert Clapham. The applicant stated that she had lived apart from her husband for twenty years, earning her living by nursing. The application was granted for separation, with five shillings per week maintenance."

Around this time, in 1911, Herbert had applied to patent a device for the generation of gas for homes. This ties in with his eldest son George and his family living in Te Kūiti at the time, running a gas appliance business. Aunt Aimée confirmed this during our 2003 discussion:

"My father set up a gas business. Gas was just coming in and he set up a shop in Te Kūiti where they had all the necessary things to promote gas for cooking, heating and lighting."

Aimée was born in Te Kūiti in 1908 and her younger brother Ellis (my father) was born there in 1912. It would appear that Herbert was living with George's family in Te Kūiti at this time.

If we go back a couple of years, we discover that the Clapham Gas Light Manufacturing and Agency Company started doing business with great promise in 1909, visiting Auckland to demonstrate its "very superior light, heat and gas producing plant".

But in October 1910 the company featured in the papers for another reason—unpaid debts, resulting in it being placed in liquidation the following month. Among the items offered for sale by tender was a Clapham Gas Generating Plant valued at £200, the equivalent of around $44,000 today. One of the company's creditors advertised for sale by tender a promissory note with an outstanding balance of £385 (about $85,000 today), from an original value of £900.

Included in the liquidation was the sale of a boat (a ketch named Waitangi) and, as a result of a later court case regarding its sale, we learn that Herbert was in fact a director of the gas company. This must have been the boat he bought for his Healtheries business.

Throughout this period Herbert continued to "consult" as a "Hydro-Electropathic and Medical Botanic Practitioner, late proprietor and superintendent of the Bellevue and Mount View Sanatoriums of Australia", mostly advertising in the King Country Chronicle until the gas company's collapse in 1912.

After that he was based in Auckland with premises at 480 Queen Street, operating as the Clapham Botanic Institute and advertising a "100 Years' Life Elixir", which promised to make people "be young, look young, feel young all the time" for two shillings and sixpence a bottle. This was probably the business he established with his son George, which operated in Auckland for several years. It was also known as Clapham Botanic Remedies. The business was still operating in Queen Street in 1930.

In August 1913 he was back in the news nationwide, with all the major newspapers reacting to a claim that he had discovered and perfected a cure for tuberculosis and had presented a petition to Parliament, signed by no fewer than 7,110 others, urging the Government to support him.

The newspapers reported:

"A somewhat unusual petition was submitted to Parliament this week by Mr Macdonald (MP for Bay of Plenty) on behalf of Herbert Clapham, medical botanist, of Auckland, and 7,110 others. The petitioner states that he, not being a duly qualified medical practitioner, finds his humane efforts clashing with the interests of the medical profession, although he knows himself to be qualified to place the cure of consumption before the world at large for the benefit of suffering humanity. He explains that the processes and method of his cure are radically different from the treatment hitherto recognised and employed, and entail an initial expense which is beyond his means. He therefore prays that the Government grant a sum sufficient to enable him to meet the initial outlay or, alternatively, that the Government undertake the treatment of consumptives according to his methods and formulas under his direction and, if successful after a fair and satisfactory test has been made, recompense him by bonus or otherwise. He also requests the Government to grant him immunity from any prosecution to which he may be liable through the contravening of certain Acts in demonstrating his cure."

In September the Public Petitions Committee made the non-committal recommendation that the petition be referred to the Government. No report of its eventual outcome has been found in the newspaper archives.

While the petition was making its way through Parliament, Herbert was busy organising a benefit concert, by permission of the Mayor of Auckland, to assist the families and dependants of the recent Huntly mining disaster. The Huntly disaster was the 1914 mine explosion in which forty-three miners died on 12 September 1914 after an acetylene cap lamp ignited methane gas, leading to a difficult recovery operation that lasted for weeks.

In a major public relations coup, the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, accepted an invitation to open the event with a speech, followed by "an excellent programme of songs, recitations and other items". The concert concluded with a "lecturette" by Herbert Clapham entitled "The Struggle for Life."