The RMH Medical Voices: oral histories with our senior doctors

Dr John Andrews was born in England in 1927 and served as a Navigation Officer in the British Merchant Navy from 1942-48 before completing his medical studies from London Hospital Medical College in 1955. 

From 1955-57 he held resident appointments at the London Hospital in Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Morbid Anatomy, and General Medicine and Paediatrics at Dover and Folkstone Hospitals. He was also an Outpatient Registrar in Medicine at the London Hospital in 1958 before migrating to Australia in 1959.

Following a time in medical practice in Launceston and Adelaide, he moved to Melbourne to undertake radiotherapy training and work becoming a Specialist in Radioisotopes and then Director of Nuclear Medicine at the RMH from 1966-92. He completed his Doctor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne in 1979.

‘Over the years therefore I have taken an interest in differing facets of history in general, and medical history in particular, leading to a permanent interest in the subject and the appreciation of why it is important to value past medical achievements in the development of the physician.’

He was also lecturer to medical students at the University of Melbourne and a Consultant on Radiation Safety and Nuclear Medicine to the Victorian Health Department. 

Among his many professional memberships, in 1969 he was a founder and President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine, and Chair of their Accreditation Board. In addition, he was a member of the committee and lecturer for the Nuclear Medicine Technologists training course of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

He is the author or co-author of more than 100 publications in Australian, British and American Journals, including several papers as part of yearbooks of Nuclear Medicine and Radiology.

Dr Andrews was a member of foundation Committee, State Coordinator and Vice President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War and the Australian delegate for the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize presentation awarded to the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War.

He retired from the RMH in 1992 but then worked part-time at Monash Medical Centre and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Nuclear Medicine until 2000.

Sources

• John Thomas Andrews: Curriculum Vitae, RMH Archives
• J.T. Andrews: My time at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, RMH Archives
• Dr John Andrews: ‘My interest in medical history' in Health and History, Volume 10, No 2, page 129

Dr Anne D’Arcy was Director of the RMH Emergency Department from 1978-95 and had a distinguished career in accident and emergency services both in Australia and overseas. 

Born in 1938, she completed her medical studies at the University of Melbourne in 1961. She spent two years working as a junior doctor at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne before going to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for three years as a doctor and lecturer. She returned to Melbourne in 1967 and worked as a sessional medical officer in casualty departments at the Royal Children's Hospital, Preston and Northcote Community Hospital (PANCH) and the Queen Victoria Hospital, as well as taking general practice sessions.

Dr D'Arcy became Director of Casualty Services at PANCH in 1976, and the following year was made Director of Emergency Services at Dandenong and District Hospital. She then became Director of Emergency Services at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1978 at a time when she was the only full-time specialist physician and emergency medicine had not emerged as an important speciality in hospitals.

She was also a short-term consultant with the World Health Organisation on Trauma and Emergency Care in Malaysia in 1986, and in 1987 represented the Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine at meetings in the USA with the Society of Teachers of Emergency Medicine and the University Association of Emergency Medicine. In 1984 she was foundation Vice-President of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, a position she held until 1989.

After retiring from her position at the RMH in 1995, Dr D'Arcy for eight weeks was the medical officer on the ship Aurora Australis on a trip to Antarctica for eight weeks. At other times, she was a District Medical Officer at Derby Hospital, Western Australia, with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and remote area clinics, and relieving in Emergency Departments at Mildura Base Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre and The Valley Private Hospital.

Her career achievements included being a Foundation Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and receiving the prestigious Women’s Achiever Award from the Women Chiefs of Enterprise in 1992.

Sources

• Dr Anne D’Arcy by Joseph Epstin in Emergency Medicine Australasia, Volume 3, number 1, March 1991, pages 20-21
• The RMH Archives

Born in 1910, eminent surgeon, teacher and administrator, Prof Howard Eddey, undertook his residency at the RMH in 1935-36 following his graduation from the University of Melbourne’s Medical School in 1934. A period at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London followed during which he gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in England, winning the prestigious Hallett Prize in 1938.

During World War II he served in the Australian Army Medical Corps. He was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore and spent time in prisoner of war camps. During his time in captivity he wrote notes and drew detailed anatomical diagrams on scrap paper that later became the basis for a key anatomy text used by generations of medical students.

He returned to the RMH after the war as an honorary surgeon, and also held appointments at the Prince Henry’s and Alfred hospitals. In addition, he was a lecturer in surgical anatomy at the University of Melbourne from 1950-65, and Dean of the RMH’s Clinical School from 1965-67. As a clinician he gained an impressive reputation as a head and neck surgeon. The University of Melbourne established a clinical school at the Austin Hospital in 1966 and Howard Eddey become its foundation Professor of Surgery. He was Dean of the Clinical School at the Austin and Repatriation Hospitals from 1972-75 and a member of the Board of Management of the Austin Hospital from 1972-77.

He was regarded as an outstanding teacher, and through his role with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons helped surgical education in South East Asia through examinations and lectures. He was a member of the College’s Board of Examiners from 1958-73, and was Chairman of the College’s Council from 1968-73. 

He served on many other bodies, including the Cancer Institute and the Anti-Cancer Council. He was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1974. 

In the years prior and after his retirement as Professor of Surgery, he was involved with medico-legal work and was highly regarded for his opinion and expertise. He died in 2004.

Sources

• Michael Eddey, Howard Eddey obituary, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery, cited 8 Nov 2017
• Howard Eddey, Biographical entry, Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows Online, Royal College of Surgeons, England, cited 8 Nov 2017
• The Austin Hospital Clinical School: Twenty-five years of patient care, teaching and research 1966-1991, Chiron, 1992, page 37

Joyce Frew, nee Bell, graduated from the University of Melbourne’s Medical School in 1937. In 1940 she married Dr John Frew, a fellow graduate of the medical course, becoming Lady Frew as of his knighthood in 1980.

Dr Joyce Frew, as a Resident Medical Officer at the RMH in 1938- 39, worked in the Casualty Department and as an anaesthetist. During World War II she worked in private practice in anaesthetics, as well as one session a week at the RMH and one session at the Blood Bank which started in her hospital ward in 1938.

She was involved in the establishment of the Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service and she worked as an honorary medical officer with this service for more than 40 years. Her other major activity was with the Royal District Nursing Service, again over many years, holding executive positions throughout this period. She died in 1999.

Sir Frew had a life-long association with the RMH, from RMO in 1936, Medical Superintendent 1938-41, Subdean of the Clinical School 1947-55, Honorary Physician 1946-72, Consultant Physician 1972-85, and member of the Board of Management 1954-79 including President from 1973-79.

Sources

• University of Melbourne Medical School Society, Chiron, Volume 2, number 1, 1988, page 24
• Frew, Sir John Lewtas, College Roll, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians
• Frew, Sir John Lewtas, Australian Dictionary of Biography

Respiratory physician and medical historian Bryan Gandevia was born in 1925 and died in 2006. A University of Melbourne medical graduate in 1948, he undertook residency at the RMH before enlisting in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, serving in the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan and later in the Korean War.

From 1951-54 he had postgraduate appointments at the RMH in pathology, clinical medicine and clinical studies supervision, obtaining his Doctorate in Medicine. He held research fellowship appointments at the Brompton Hospital for Diseases of the Chest and at Hammersmith Postgraduate Medical School in London From 1954-57. Five year in private practice back in Melbourne followed, until in 1963 he was appointed as Associate Professor of Medicine, University of New South Wales, and Chairman of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Prince Henry and Prince of Wales Hospitals.

Here he was part of a team which managed to turn the infectious diseases hospital into a centre of excellence. He developed an interest in occupational health including industrial health surveys and asbestosis-related disease. He held his university and hospital appointments until his retirement in 1985, after which he returned to private practice until 1998.

Gandevia had a long-standing interest in medical history which began when he was a medical student. His research and publications on the history of medicine in Australia had a profound influence on the development of knowledge in this field, and he was a founding member, and President, of the Australian Society of the History of Medicine in 1986. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1985 for his work as a Trustee of the Australian War Memorial from 1967-83.

Source

• Brenda Heagney, “Obituary: Bryan Harle Gandevia”, Health and History, Volume 8, No 2, 2006

William Hare was born in Ballarat in 1923 and educated at Geelong Grammar, winning a scholarship to Trinity College to study medicine at the University of Melbourne. But he was one of 12 medical students to contract tuberculosis in his fourth year in 1946. He spent five years in hospital and was probably one of the first patients in Australia to receive Streptomycin which saved his life.

On regaining his health, he returned to his studies and graduated MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1951. He then spent his residency at the RMH in 1952-53 followed by a two-year period as Radiology Registrar. Further studies followed as he completed a Doctor of Medicine and gained a Diploma of Diagnostic Radiology. He was appointed to the RMH as an Assistant Radiologist, after which he rose rapidly becoming Director of Radiology from 1958-88.

As Director, he recognised the need for strong academic leadership in radiology and was instrumental in the creation in 1963 of the University Department of Radiology and the Edgar Rouse Chair of Radiology, the first radiology chair in Australia. As inaugural Chair, appointed in 1965, Prof Hare established radiology teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate students, greatly elevating the standard and practice of radiology in Australia.

A world authority in interventional uroradiology, he established many practices that have been adopted worldwide. He served on the Council of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) from 1960-71 and as the College’s President in 1986-87. He was also foundation President of the Asian and Oceanian Society of Radiology in 1971.

Counted among his many accolades were the RANZCR 1958 Thomas Baker Travelling Fellowship, the 1963 Rouse Travelling Fellowship and the College’s Gold Medal, its highest honour. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1990 for his outstanding service to medicine, particularly in the field of radiology. He served on many national and state government department and hospital research committees including the Radiation Safety Committee of the Health Department.

In his later years, Prof Hare worked tirelessly to advance the discipline of radiology through his wise counsel and continued teaching, the creation of the Bill Hare Travelling Fellowship and in securing valuable philanthropic funds for the RMH’s Radiology department.

Prof Hare died in May 2013.

Sources

• Obituary of Professor Emeritus William Samuel Calhoun Hare by Professor Patricia Desmond, RMH Department of Radiology, June 2013, in the RMH Archives
• Professor W.S.C. Hare, Chiron, Volume 2, no 2, 1989, page 44
• Obituary by Brian Tress and Lindy Hare, The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 July 2013

Renowned thoracic surgeon John Hayward was an outstanding figure in the establishment of cardiothoracic surgery in Australia.

Born in 1910, he was a gifted student and his education was marked by scholarships and prizes. He graduated from the University of Melbourne’s Medical School in 1933 with first-class honours in all subjects.

After residency at the RMH, he worked as a surgical clinical assistant at the hospital for two years and taught pathology and physiology while gaining his Doctor of Medicine in 1936 and Master of Surgery in 1937. Specialised training in thoracic surgery in London and the Brompton Hospital followed.

He joined the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps in 1941, serving in the Middle East and New Guinea.

He was the first Honorary Thoracic Surgeon at the RMH, appointed in 1945 until his retirement in 1966. After this time, however, he continued his work at the Heidelberg Repatriation, Austin, Royal Women’s and Preston and Northcote Community hospitals. In addition he was Medical Officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs from 1975-85. Together with Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop he developed new techniques in oesophageal surgery and was an expert in closed cardiac surgery, in particular surgery of mitral value disease.

A brilliant teacher, he is remembered by a host of medical students and surgical trainees for his clarity, enthusiasm and vibrant, resonant voice.

Active outside the hospital, he was a member of Convocation of the University of Melbourne from 1971-79 and a member of the University Council from 1979-83. His loyalty to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons extended over many years including foundation membership of the Thoracic Section and membership of the Court of Examiners from 1967-76. He also received honorary life membership of the Australian Physiotherapy Association for his support of thoracic physiotherapy and the profession in general, particularly in the years following World War II.

He led a team of self-contained Australian medical units to New Guinea in 1955, where there was a high mortality rate from tuberculosis. In 1959, under the Colombo plan, he led another team on a lecture tour to Malaya, Thailand and Burma, and subsequently he accepted several of their surgical trainees on his unit.

John Hayward died in July 1999.

Sources

• The University of Melbourne Medical School, Chiron, 2000
• Australian Physiotherapy Association Victorian, Branch Newsletter, September 1999
• Obituary, The Age, 3 Aug 1999
• Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows Online, Royal College of Surgeons of England

Margaret Henderson, OBE MBBS (Melb) MD (Melb) FRCP (London) FRACP, was born in 1915. A much loved and respected member of the medical staff of the RMH, she graduated MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1938 and was appointed a Resident Medical Officer at the RMH for 1939-40. In 1941 was awarded a Doctor in Medicine and worked in medical research and general practice. During World War II she served as a captain in the Australian Military Forces in 1942-43, and from 1945-46 was with the Red Cross in Malaysia in a civilian relief unit.

Following a time working in London and Switzerland, she became an Honorary Outpatient Physician at the RMH in 1947. She became the first woman on the Senior Medical Staff as of her appointment as Honorary Physician to Inpatients in 1959, a pioneering appointment she held until 1975.

A highly regarded physician in general internal medicine with specialist interests in respiratory and thoracic medicine, she worked in the hospital’s special lung clinic. She was regarded as an outstanding teacher much sought after by medical students and residents and played a major role as head of one of the RMH general medical units for many years. On her retirement in 1981, she was appointed an Honorary Consultant to the RMH.

In addition to her work at the RMH, she was Honorary Physician to the Queen Victoria Hospital from 1943-60 and Medical Officer to Janet Clarke Hall at the University of Melbourne for many years. She also provided outstanding service to the management committee of the Royal District Nursing Service for 18 years.

She received an OBE for her services to medicine in 1976, and in 2005 was made Consultant Emeritus at the RMH, becoming only the second person to receive this honour. In 2012, Dr Henderson was appointed Doctor of Medical Science (honoris causa) by the University of Melbourne. Her strength of character and uncommonly perceptive mind ensured her wide recognition and high regard throughout the medical profession. She died in 2017.

Sources

• Alan Gregory: The Ever Open Door: A History of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Hyland House, 1998
• The University of Melbourne, Citation for the award of Doctor of Medical Science (Honoris Causa), cited 9 Oct 2017
• The RMH Archives

Richard Larkins medical research and clinical work was largely in the area of diabetes and endocrinology.

Born in 1943, after graduating as dux of his year at Melbourne Grammar, he studied at the University of Melbourne where he graduated as the top student in 1966 with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery. From 1967 his clinical training was at the RMH before he became Assistant Endocrinologist in 1970, his first specialist position. During this period, Larkins carried out research in obesity and after his fourth paper was published in Nature in 1972, he was awarded his Doctor of Medicine by the University of Melbourne. An overseas Churchill Fellowship and Medical Research Council Fellowship followed at Hammersmith Hospital, London from 1972-74, where he was awarded a PhD by the University of London.

Larkins returned to Melbourne in 1974, and from this time until 1977 was Physician to Outpatients and Senior Associate in the University of Melbourne, Department of Medicine, at the RMH. Following this, he was appointed as First Assistant, then Reader, in the University of Melbourne, Department of Medicine, at the Repatriation General Hospital, Heidelberg. In addition from 1979 he was Director of the Endocrine and Metabolic Unit at the Repatriation General Hospital.

Prof Larkins was appointed to the James Stewart Chair of Medicine and Head, Department of Medicine, RMH in 1984. In addition, he directed the hospital’s Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology. He was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne in 1998. From 2003-09 Prof Larkins was Vice-Chancellor of Monash University and in February 2017, Chancellor of La Trobe University.

An outstanding researcher, clinical teacher, physician, and inspiring academic manager and leader, Professor Larkins was a member of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council from 1977-2000, and from 1997-2000, was Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council.

He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2002 for service to medicine and health: as an advocate of increased investment in research, as a contributor to health policy reform, and as an initiator of innovative medical programs and the provision of training opportunities for medical officers in the Oceania region.

In 2003, he was honoured with inaugural Consultant Emeritus title at the RMH, and 2014 he was inducted into the RMH Research Hall of Fame.

Sources

• Larkins, Richard Graeme - Biographical entry, University of Melbourne, History of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences, 2012
• The RMH Archives

Richard Lovell was the inaugural University of Melbourne, James Stewart Professor of Medicine at the RMH from 1955-83.

He was born in 1918, and educated at St Mary’s Hospital in London where he was awarded his Licentiate, Royal College of Physicians and Member, Royal College of Surgeons in 1941. Following this, he enlisted in the Royal Naval volunteer reserve and spent the next five years as a naval surgeon. After war service, he completed his medical training, graduating Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1946, and Doctor of Medicine in 1949. From 1947, he worked at Brompton Hospital, London before rejoining St Mary’s Hospital in 1950 as a lecturer, during which time he developed an interest in epidemiology.

In 1955, Prof Lovell was appointed as Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne based at the RMH. He created a culture of basing clinical practice on evidence, thereby enhancing medical teaching with increased quality and new rigor. Charming, warm and witty, Prof Lovell was an outstanding and committed teacher who allowed members of his team to pursue their own lines of investigation and research. Formal presentations were supplemented by informal brainstorming meetings in which his insight and novel approach frequently led his colleagues to new lines of thought.

During his time as Professor of Medicine, Lovell made advances in research into high blood pressure and optimal treatment of heart attack. His early recognition of the value of cadaveric renal transplantation in the treatment of end-stage renal failure led, in collaboration with Professor of Surgery Maurice Ewing, to the successful introduction of kidney transplants into routine medical practice in Australia. Another initiative was combining the results of several medical studies to determine the effectiveness of particular therapies in preventing death following myocardial infarction - a technique later known as meta-analysis.

Prof Lovell was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1978 in recognition of his service to medicine. He retired from the University in 1983 but continued to contribute to medical research through work as an epidemiologist and administrator with the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria. In addition, he was the inaugural Chair of the Medical Research Ethics Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1982-1988. He died in 2000.

Sources

• Alan Gregory: The Ever Open Door: A History of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Hyland House, 1998
• Obituary, Cancer Forum, Volume 24, No 2, July 2000, page 159
• The RMH Archives

Prof Ian Mackay was among the first to recognise autoimmunity and he was a pioneer in the development of immunosuppressive treatment for autoimmune diseases. Research by Mackay and Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet in the late 1950s and early 1960s led to the publication in 1963 of the then-definitive book on the topic, The Autoimmune Diseases.

Mackay defined major autoimmune diseases of the liver and devised life-saving protocols for autoimmune hepatitis, as well as many other expressions of autoimmunity such as gastritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, type-1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

Ian Mackay was born in 1922 and graduated in Medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1939. His time working in several Victorian hospitals was disrupted by nine months spent in a sanatorium for tuberculosis. He also spent time in post-war Germany as a medical officer at a displaced persons camp examining refugees for possible migration to Australia.

In 1950 he went to London and developed an interest in hepatology and undertook medical research into liver disease both in the UK and later in the USA, before his move to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in late 1955. At WEHI he was Head of the Clinical Research Unit from 1963 until his retirement in 1987. The Unit, a joint initiative between WEHI and the RMH, was where he and his team undertook research in autoimmunity as well as cared for patients with autoimmune diseases.

Research included searching for sensitive diagnostic markers of autoimmunity and attempting to develop simple tests for the measurement of immune function.

After his retirement from WEHI and the RMH, he established an Autoimmunity Laboratory at Monash University to expand the existing research on autoimmunity and mitochondria. An author of over 700 articles on clinical and experimental research on autoimmunity, he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 1981 for service to medical research.

He was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001 for service to Australian society and science in biochemistry and molecular biology, and in 2014 was inducted into the RMH Research Hall of Fame.

Sources

• Senga Whittingham, Merrill J Rowley and M Eric Gershwin: ‘A tribute to an outstanding immunologist – Ian Reay Mackay’, Journal of Autoimmunity, Vol 31 (3), 2008, pages 197-200
• Professor Ian Mackay, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research website, cited 26 November 2018

Benjamin Rank was born in Heidelberg, Melbourne in 1911, educated at Scotch College and graduated in Medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1934. After initial experience as a Resident at the RMH in 1935-36, he travelled to England for surgical training in the new and challenging speciality of plastic and faciomaxillary surgery.

He enlisted in the Army in 1940, and in 1941 was sent to Egypt to establish a plastic and faciomaxillary surgical unit at the 2nd Australian General Hospital. In 1942, he returned to Melbourne to set up a similar unit at the Heidelberg Military Hospital.

He was appointed Honorary Plastic Surgeon in charge of the newly established Plastic and Faciomaxillary Unit at the RMH in 1946, a position he held until 1966. In addition he was the Foundation Chairman to the hospital’s Board of Postgraduate Medical Education from 1968-75; Medical Advisor on Policy and Development to the Board of Management from 1971-76; and a member of the hospital’s Board of Management from 1976-82.

He established the Victorian Plastic Surgery Unit at the Preston and Northcote Community Hospital in 1963. Rank was a Councillor of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons from 1955 and was its President in 1966-1968. He was appointed Sims Commonwealth Professor of Surgery in 1958, and became the only overseas President of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in 1965.

In 1984 he was instrumental in the establishment of Interplast, a partnership between Rotary clubs in Australia and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons offering plastic surgical expertise and training to South Pacific and Asian nations.

Rank was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1955 for his work in training Asian surgeons under the Colombo Plan, was knighted by the Queen in 1972, and made a Knight Commander of the Order of St. John in 1988. Meticulous, creative, a master planner with a sharp intellect and enormous tenacity, Rank is regarded as one of the pioneers of plastic and reconstructive surgery in Australia. He died in 2002, and in 2014 was inducted into the RMH Research Hall of Fame.

Sources

• Alan Gregory: The Ever Open Door: A History of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Hyland House, 1998
• Obituary in Chiron, Volume 4, Number 5, June 2002
• Obituary in The Australian 4 Feb 2002
• The RMH Archives

Ron Rome undertook his medical training at the University of Melbourne, during which time he attended the RMH as a medical student. He graduated in 1934.

After a short period at the Alfred Hospital following graduation, Dr Rome spent much of his career at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne. He was a Resident Surgeon in 1937 and Medical Superintendent from 1938-40. War service during World War II followed, with attachments to field ambulances and hospitals in the Middle East.

He returned to the Royal Women’s Hospital as an Honorary Assistant Surgeon in 1947, following which he was appointed an Honorary Obstetrical Surgeon from 1948-70. In addition, he was member of their Board of Management from 1966-70 and Chairman of the Executive Medical Staff in 1967-70. He retired from private practice in 1978.

His particular clinical interest lay in the problem of diabetes in pregnancy, and through the establishment and Head of the Diabetic Clinic he exerted a great influence throughout Victoria, achieving widely acclaimed results in standards of clinic practice. He also display a wide concern for the welfare of nursing staff and medical students and served on many Royal Women’s Hospital committees including the Advisory Committee and fundraising activities.

Sources

• The Royal Women’s Hospital Annual Report 1970
• The Royal Women’s Hospital Archives

Born in March 1912, Thomas ‘Tammy’ Steel was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne, graduating in Medicine in 1935. He served as a Medical Officer at the RMH in 1936-37, and moved to the Royal Children’s Hospital in 1938, the year he gained his MD degree.

As a medical officer at the Austin Hospital in 1939-40, he developed his interest in chest disease, in particular the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. He served in the Australian Army Medical Corps in the Middle East, New Guinea and Australia from 1940-46, specialising in the treatment of chemical warfare injuries.

He was appointed Honorary Physician to Outpatients at the Alfred Hospital in 1946 and the following year travelled to London on a Nuffield Fellowship for further postgraduate training. He returned to Melbourne to private practice as a Consultant Physician. His particular interests were in thoracic and respiratory medicine. In addition to his duties at the Alfred Hospital, he was appointed a Consultant to the Repatriation General Hospital, Heidelberg, and to Heatherton Sanatorium.

Active in both teaching and clinical care at the Alfred Hospital until 1972, he was also appointed to the hospital’s Board of Management in 1962, retiring in 1983. He was an active member of the Thoracic Society of Australia, serving on the Victorian State Committee from 1958-64, with an appointment to the Melbourne Medical Postgraduate Committee from 1956-1969. At that time he was appointed as Chief Medical Officer in Victoria of the AMP Society until 1985.

He was a wise counsellor and beloved physician known for his devoted and willing service to his patients. He died in December 2000.

Sources

• J. M. Gardiner, Thomas Heron Steel, College Roll, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, cited 28 Sept 2017
• Alfred Healthcare Group Heritage Committee, Faces and Places, Volume 1, 1996

For much of his long and distinguished career, Frank Douglas Stephens was a world authority on patho-embryology of developmental processes in congenital abnormalities in the foetus and new-born. His research led to major advances in the treatment of and surgical procedures for abnormalities of bowel, urinary and genital organs.

Born in 1913, he graduated in medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1936 and undertook residencies at the RMH in 1936-38 and later the Royal Children’s Hospital. During World War II he enlisted as a surgical specialist in a forward-operating field ambulance in the Australian Infantry Forces.

He was awarded a Nuffield research fellowship in 1947 and headed to London to spend three years at the Hospital for Sick Children (now Great Ormond Street Hospital), where he began studies of major congenital anomalies affecting the quality of life of children.

Returning to Melbourne in 1950, he continued his clinical and surgical research at the Royal Children’s Hospital, becoming Director of Surgical Research in 1958 as well having an appointment as an honorary paediatric surgeon at the Royal Women’s Hospital. He worked in the United States from 1975-86 with joint appointments as a Paediatric Urologist at the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and Professor of Urology and Surgery at the McGaw Medical Centre of the Northwestern University.

Dr Stephens was awarded the Sir Denis Browne Gold Medal from the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons in 1976; the Urology Award of the American Academy of Paediatrics in 1986, and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1987. In addition, he held several honorary positions at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons including Councillor, Treasurer from 1969-75 and editorial secretary of the college journal for 16 years. He died in 2011.

Sources

• Frank Douglas Stephens, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, cited 28 September 2017
• Obituary, The Age, 4 January 2012