Dr. Hopii

Heinrich “Henry” Theodor Hoppe (referred to as Hopii) was born in 1866 in Gotha, Germany. He was a medical man at Angledool in the early parts of the 20th century.

Hoppe immigrated to Australia in 1891 aboard the Oldenburg. He was in Melbourne for a year before moving north to Queensland where he remained for another year, then south to Angledool.

There are conflicting reports about whether Dr. Hoppe was in fact a licensed medical doctor. It was not uncommon at the time for medical professionals to be unregistered, often for their entire careers. Doc Kendrick (considered to be a medical miracle worker) of Angledool was quite famous for not being a legitimate doctor. Dr. Hoppe was in fact registered as a doctor, he is listed on the Australasian Medical Directory in 1915, and it is suggested he may have had medical credentials prior to arriving in Australia.

In 1899, Hoppe was accused of over-administering a dose of morphine (then called morphia) to patient James Collins, who died. Hoppe insisted he had not administered morphine, but rather vomica, a potent plant-based stimulant. The case was dismissed by the Walgett magistrate.

Hoppe was a stallholder at the annual Angledool church bazaar in 1900.

He was married to Alice Maud O’Neil from 1906 to 1910. They had a son, William Hoppe in 1910, the year they divorced.

Alice Hoppe did indeed participate in a beauty contest, although it was in Sydney, not Melbourne. Mrs. Hoppe also did not win the contest, it was won by another Alice: Alice Buckridge from Melbourne. That may be the source of the confusion.

Among author Stuart Lloyd’s documents, held by the Lightning Ridge Historical Society, is a letter from William L. Moore, son of earliest opal discoverer Robert L. Moore. William Moore describes an incident with Drs. Hopii and Kendrick that was not published in The Lightning Ridge Book:

“Dr. Kendrick and Dr. Hopii (I am not at all sure about the spelling) were in Angledool at the same time, and Dr. Hopii said some hard things about Dr. Kendrick, the latter came to hear of them, and Dr. Kendrick was the bigger and stronger of the two, so to shut Dr. Hopii up, he got a buggy whip and met Dr. Hopii in the main street of Angledool, and got Dr. Hopii by the scruff of the neck and gave him a really severe whipping in public, and Dr. Hopii was too frightened to prosecute.”

By 1908-09 Hoppe had relocated to South Australia, beginning a medical practice at Loxton. In 1916, being a German immigrant, he was placed on the Enemy Alien register in South Australia.

In 1923 he married again, to Maree Sophie Dreckow.

Henry Hoppe died on 13 January 1943 at Kapunda, South Australia. He is buried at Kapunda Cemetery.

• Henry Hoppe @ Find a Grave.

Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: ‘A Sudden Death’, The Western Herald, 22 July 1899, p. 2; ‘Angledool’, Freeman’s Journal, 13 October 1900, p. 3; Australian Marriage Index, 1906, reg. no. 9311; ‘In Divorce’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 February 1911, p. 7; Australasian Medical Directories, 1883-1915, 1915, South Australia, p. 357; Australian Death Index, 13 January 1943, vol. 659, p. 246; ‘Girls - In the Good Old Days’, The Australian Women’s Weekly, 7 June 1961, p. 5; The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, pp. 55, 196, ‘'H Surnames: émigrés 1870-1920’, German-Australian Aliens of Militarism, germanaustralianalianstomilitarism.blogspot.com, accessed 21 September 2026.