Career
Doctor Spicer was one of five brothers, four having been trained as doctors, and emigrated to Victoria in the early 1850s. He practised in Saint Kilda, Victoria for a while before moving to South Australia in 1862 to take a position of House Surgeon with the Adelaide Hospital. He took over the practice of Doctor Taylor at Kensington in 1864, and was followed by Doctor John Benson both as House Surgeon and, in 1866, at Kensington.
Spicer next had a practice in Adelaide with Doctor Augustus Davies, formerly of Clare.
He was appointed in 1867 to a panel of enquiry into the operation of the Hospital, which, over the objections of the Colonial Surgeon, Robert Waters Moore Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (1820–1884), recommended sweeping reforms. He returned to England around 1871 and died at Tufnell Park.
He was elected to the Adelaide City Council for Grey Ward in December 1869. His candidacy drew some criticism, as he was a major shareholder in the South Australian Gas Company and a proponent of gas lighting for the City.
He was elected a member for The Sturt in the South Australian House of Assembly in February 1870 following the resignation of Richard Bullock Andrews who had accepted the post of Crown Solicitor and Public Prosecutor.
He was a candidate at the following election but was unsuccessful. Doctor R. H. South. Spicer was an ear, nose and throat specialist in Cavendish Square, London. a second son, born in Adelaide, was a medical doctor in the Royal Navy
Edward H. Spicer (1 January 1817 – 7 May 1906), businessman of Rose Park, was a brother. He emigrated to South Australia on the Winchester, arriving in June 1838.
Fellow passengers included T. G. Waterhouse"s brothers Henry and John.
(Two other brothers trained as doctors but first Henry (from 1853 to 1873), then George (from 1873 to 1896), found the life of a businessman in partnership with Edward more congenial.).
