Alexander Henry Croucher M.D. M.B. C.M. F.R.C.S. (20 August 1863 – 1 February 1954), son of Dr. Alex Richard Croucher, was homeopathic Physician and Surgeon to the Leaf Homeopathic Cottage Hospital, at Marine Road, Eastbourne, Physician to the Eastbourne Homeopathic Dispensary, and to the Homeopathic Convalescent Home in Eastbourne. He was a member of the British Homeopathic Society and the London Dermatological Society.

Alexander Henry Croucher was born in August 1863, the son of homeopath Dr. Alex Richard Croucher (1836 – 1918) and his wife Catherine Green.

Croucher followed his father and pursued a career in medicine. In 1884, he graduated M.B. and C.M. from the University of Edinburgh and in 1888 he was awarded his M.D. from the same institution. In 1900, Croucher was admitted as a Fellow of the Edinburgh Royal College of Surgeons.

Croucher began practicing in Canterbury and in 1884 became an incipient member of the British Homeopathic Society. He became a full member in 1892.

In April 1887 a notice in The Homoeopathic World stated that Croucher had left Canterbury and relocated to Metford Lodge, Bolton Road, Eastbourne, where he joined Dr. David John Walther M.B. C.M. (15 May 1852 – 16 July 1918) in his practice.

On Monday January 2, 1888, the new Leaf Homoeopathic Cottage Hospital opened without fanfare in Eastbourne. The medical officers for the 6-bed, 2-cot hospital were Dr.’s Walther and Alexander Henry Croucher.

In October 1888, the two physicians were both appointed to the Eastbourne Homeopathic Convalescent Home that had opened in August. Walther was made Consulting Physician, Croucher as Physician in Ordinary.

A. H. Croucher had mixed success when encountering orthodox medical men. In February 1890, an account in The Eastbourne Review of a coroners inquest into the death of a patient under Croucher’s care was reprinted in The British Homoeopathic Review. The deceased, a woman in labour, had been attended by Croucher but, when her condition worsened, her husband had sought the nearest available doctor. An orthodox man, Samuel Smith, initially refused to attend, owing to Croucher, an homeopath, having treated her. After her death Smith then refused to provide a certificate to her husband, for the same reasons, and suggested that Croucher had been responsible for her death by tearing her womb with forceps. The inquest called in an expert who examined the deceased and found no evidence of negligence by Croucher.

In contrast, in September 1909 Croucher referred a patient to urologist Sir Peter Johnston Freyer (1851 – 1921), who invited Croucher to assist him with a prostatectomy, the surgical procedure Freyer had helped pioneer.

In February, 1892, Croucher married Mary Rebecca Chaplin (1866 – 1939) in St. Leonards-on-Sea. They had two children, Esther Mary (1895 – 1985) and Alexander Theodore M.R.C.S. L.R.C.P. (1898 – 1963).

By 1897 A.H. Croucher and his family resided at Onslow House, 6 Burlington Place, Eastbourne.

During the First World War, Croucher served as a surgeon with the French Red Cross. Following the war, he returned to his Eastbourne practice and roles at the Leaf Hospital and the Homeopathic Convalescent Home and Dispensary.

In the mid 1930s, Croucher retired to Chiltern Rise, Woodcote, Oxfordshire. His wife Mary died there on 20 February, 1939. A. H. Croucher died in Henley, Oxfordshire, on 1 February, 1954.

Of Interest:

Alexander Richard Croucher M.D. M.R.C.S. L.S.A. (4 June 1836 – 15 June 1918), father of Alexander Henry Croucher, was an homeopath who served as Physician at the Hastings Homeopathic Dispensary and Consulting Physician at the Buchanan Homeopathic Hospital, St. Leonard’s on Sea. In 1867, A. R. Croucher became a Member of the British Homeopathic Society. He was also a Member of the Sussex Archaeological Society. A. R. Croucher served as Alderman and Magistrate of Hastings and, in 1893, he was elected Mayor of Hastings.

Alexander Theodore Croucher M.R.C.S. L.R.C.P. (1898 – 1963), son of Alexander Henry Croucher, was a physician who lived at 4 Burlington Place, Eastbourne, and later in Torquay, Devon. In 1924 A. T. Croucher married Doris Marie Enid Philcox (1903 – 1998).