You're very welcome, Patricia. Yes, it's a fascinating variety and it's very tempting to think that because it was so appealing and was also apparently easily struck from cuttings that it could still be surviving somewhere, name forgotten (although I will admit, some rose names are easier to remember than others and this has one of the more easy-to-remember names). I don't know if any of the tealadies would know of any foundling climbers in the pink to copper range that might be reassessed with 'Dr. Quinn' in mind?

I do think this is probably an Australian-raised rose. There were two prominent Dr. Quinns in 19th century Australian society, both brothers and both bishops, one Bishop of Bathurst and the other Bishop of Brisbane. The latter died in 1881. My theory is that this rose started out as a locally raised bush rose named after one of these bishops and it sported into a climbing variety which became popular. The early references are ambiguous often calling it simply 'Dr. Quinn' but then also specifically calling it 'Climbing Dr. Quinn'. I can't find any very early references to a rose 'Dr Quinn' from the 1880s but if it were named after the Brisbane bishop perhaps this is a very early Williams rose. But then again these were Catholic bishops and Williams was from Wales I believe, so not likely Catholic. Just speculating.

I'll post a few brief bio-details about the Drs Quinn a bit later. I do think they are the likeliest candidates to have a rose named after them as they were both very prominent and influential. However, I could be wrong of course. Regarding it being a very early Alister Clark rose - my feeling is that he would likely to have promoted it in some way at the time, or at least commented on the superb specimens that he might have seen of 'his' rose when he visited Adelaide, and that there'd be some record of the rose being associated with him somewhere. Of course, it could also just be an old European rose that someone renamed.