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James Beaney
James Beaney - or Champagne Jimmy - was one of Nineteenth Century Melbourne's more colourful characters. As a high profile surgeon, he had no truck with the new-fangled Listerian methods. "He operated even in the 1880s in an old blood soaked coat, his fingers encrusted with great diamond rings. His medicine was, if possible, even cruder - champagne was a favourite prescription which he liberally administered to his patients, students and his own person." (from The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne by Graham Davidson)Despite his tangles with the law for 'illegal operations', Dr. Beaney became a politician and pillar of society. In 1887 he held a public competition for the design of a new house and surgery in central Melbourne. The resulting building, to a design by William Salway, remains impressive even when dwarfed by adjacent high-rise hotels. The building became The Alexandra Club in 1916, and is currently used as an upmarket store. Champagne Jimmy's grave in Melbourne General Cemetery towers over its neighbours. In stark contrast, the grave of Mary Lewis - the subject of a murder charge against Dr. Beaney - is now unmarked.
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