Figures in the history of medicine

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Along with the extensive collection of medical academics' papers, the University of Melbourne Archives holds the papers of many prominent Victorian physicians. Highlights from these collections include the papers of Sir Clive Hamilton Fitts, the personal correspondence of surgeon 'Weary' Dunlop and the war diaries/medical records of Alfred Derham Plumley, who was at the Changi prisoner of war camp and Assistant Director of Medical Services, at the AIF headquarters in Malaya during the Second World War.

Robert Marshall Allan was a Physician and Professor of Obstetrics. He graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Ch.B. Honours degree (1910) from the University of Edinburgh. In 1914, Allan graduated with a Doctor of Medicine (Honours) by thesis on the action of pituitary extract during labour.

During the First World War, Allan served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and the Australian Imperial Force. After a period of private practice and hospital work as a Specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (in Brisbane), Allan was appointed Director of Obstetrical Research at the University of Melbourne (1925). He is remembered for the Marshall Allan Prize in Obstetrics and by the Marshall Allan Library at the Royal Women's Hospital.

The collection includes University correspondence (in the field of Obstetrics) and newspaper reports of his speeches. Please note: There is only limited material related to medicine.

After Samuel Dougan Bird graduated in medicine, he became a Resident Physician at Brampton Hospital and served as a Surgeon during the Crimean War. In 1861, Bird came to Melbourne due to ill health. He specialised in lung diseases and became President of the Victorian Medical Society (1869). He was a lecturer in the Medical Faculty, University of Melbourne (1870 to 1887) and a member of the Board of Examiners. For over thirty years, he was Chief Medical Officer at the A.M.P. Society of Victoria.

Frederic Dougan Bird was educated at Scotch College, the University of Melbourne, the Kings College and the University College, London. Bird was a demonstrator in Anatomy (1884 to 1887) and lectured in Surgery (1896 to 1920). In 1914, he became a consulting surgeon in Egypt and the Mediterranean, Macedonia and England.

The Samuel and Frederic Dougan Bird collection includes a memorandum that refers to the Melbourne Hospital Elections, medical correspondence/case notes, addresses, certificates and awards.

John Houghton Cole-batch worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and specialised in Paediatrics. Colebatch served in the Australian Army Medical Corps (1941-1946). He became Associate Physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital (1939-41), Physician to outpatients (1946 to 1958) and Sub-Dean (1949 to 1951).

Colebatch held numerous positions within the Paediatric Society of Victoria and Australian Paediatric Association. During the 1950s and 1960s, Colebatch was awarded several travelling research fellowships. He was Clinical Tutor in Infant Welfare, at the Melbourne University Faculty. From 1949, he specialised in Paediatric areas, Haematology and Oncology.

Between 1948 and 1949, Colebatch conducted a clinical trial of the efficacy of folate antagonists, with patients who had acute childhood leukaemia. The trial confirmed the results of Dr Sidney Farber’s earlier uncontrolled trials in the United States. The positive results of this trial led to further trials of chemotherapeutic agents in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Colebatch collection consists of clinical trial records and research protocol developments in cancer research. Please note: This collection is restricted and may not be available for immediate retrieval.

A. P. Derham on leave from France, undated, Alfred Plumley Derham Collection, 1963.0024.00004

Alfred Plumley Derham was educated at Camberwell Grammar School, Scotch College and the University of Melbourne. In 1914, Derham interrupted his medical studies and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. In 1917, after service in Gallipoli (he was wounded and awarded the Military Cross), he completed his degree. Derham’s World War One diaries, and some photographs of that time, have been digitised and are available online by using the reference number “1963.0024”.

During the years between war, Derham was Honorary Physician to Out-patients (1920), Honorary Physician to In-patients (1935), at the Melbourne Children's Hospital, as well as the Director of the R.S.L. Children's Health Bureau (from 1933).

By the outbreak of the Second World War Derham had risen to the rank of Colonel and in 1940, became Assistant Director of the Medical Service of the Australian Military Forces. Captured in the fall of Singapore in 1942, Derham and his son Tom were in the Senior Officers' Party transferred from Changi on 16 August 1942 to Formosa. In 1944 they were transferred to Manchuria via Japan. From September 1942 to late 1943, Derham kept patient medical history cards for this group on the back of cigarette packets, recording the dramatic deterioration of the prisoners' health. Much of the material relating to this time period is contained in boxes six, seven and eight.

On his return to Melbourne after the war, he resumed civilian practice and retired in 1955.

Most of Alfred Plumley Derham’s collection has been listed, although there are some objects which may not be available due to their fragility.

Sir Edward Dunlop and Roy Douglas Wright at Clive Disher Field Laboratory, University of Melbourne, Media and Publication Services Office Collection, 2003.0003.00487

Sir Ernest Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (1934) and a Master of Surgery in 1937.

Dunlop enlisted with the Royal Australian Military Corps in 1939 as the Second World War began. He was appointed the Medical Liaison Officer (between the British and ANZAC forces) in Greece and had postings with the 2/2 Australian Casualty Clearing Station in Tobruk, Palestine and Indonesia. In 1942, his hospital in Java was captured by the Japanese and forced to work on the Burma-Siam Railway for three years. Dunlop’s collection contains material relating to the prisoner of war experience as well as repatriation, complimenting the extensive World War Two prisoner of war material in the collections of Alfred Plumley Derham (see entry above), John Orde Poynton, the Australian Red Cross Society Victorian Division and National Office.

After the war, Dunlop entered private practice and was appointed honorary Surgeon to out-patients and in-patients at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. In 1948, Dunlop was elected a fellow of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. During the 1950s and 1960s he worked as a consultant at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and Peter MacCallum Clinic (see entry for Peter MacCallum).

Sir Clive Hamilton Fitts was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne Grammar and the University of Melbourne. After graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine (1926), he undertook post-graduate work in England, Switzerland and the United States. Fitts subsequently specialized in thoracic medicine and worked as a Consulting Physician to many of Melbourne's larger hospitals, including the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Women's Hospital. He was also a member of the University of Melbourne Council and the Commonwealth Drug Evaluation Committee.

The collection includes speeches, correspondence and addresses by Fitts. Please note: Patient medical cards, case histories, memoir writings, diaries, taxation records, accounts, committee material, museum/gallery material, photographs, worker’s compensation cards and other correspondence are restricted and may not be available for immediate retrieval.

Dr Mary Lane, Dr Jean Davies, and Dr Annie Bennett, On New Melbourne Hospital, 1913, Mary Lane Collection, 2005.0006.00007

Mary Lane was educated at the Methodist Ladies College. In 1910, Lane commenced a medical course at the University of Melbourne. In 1913, she attended the old and new Melbourne Hospital as a medical student. In 1915, she graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery. Lane was also a non-resident student at Queen's College.

The collection includes Lane's lecture notes as a medical student (1910 to 1915), patient history/treatment sheets, degree certificates and medical specimens. Please note: This collection is partly restricted and may not be available for immediate retrieval.

Before his appointment as Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne in 1955, Robert Lovell worked as a House Physician and Medical Registrar for several hospitals in London. He was a Senior Lecturer at the St. Mary's Hospital (1950 to 1955). He was appointed. Lovell was the first Chairman of the Medical Research Ethics Committee of National Health and Medical Research (1982 to 1988). He retired from the University in 1983.

The Lovell collection includes medical condition reports, cards and notebooks. Please note: The files related to Lovell’s work as Professor of Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Medical Research Ethics papers, Working Party on Ethics in Medical Research papers, correspondence and meeting papers are restricted and may not be available for immediate retrieval.

Dismore William George Upjohn was educated at the Wesley College and the University of Melbourne. In 1912, he was a Lecturer in Surgery at the University of Melbourne. He was a Stewart Lecturer in Anatomy, until 1918.

In 1927, Upjohn was appointed Honorary Surgeon to the Inpatient’s and a Clinical Lecturer in Surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital. Upjohn was a foundation member at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He presided over the British Medical Association, Victorian branch (1933 to 1934). During the First and Second World War, he was the Department Chairman of the Central Coordination Committee. The Committee controlled the allocation of medical manpower, to meet military and civilian needs.

Upjohn was appointed President of the Melbourne Hospital (1960 to 1968), Deputy Chancellor of the University of Melbourne (1962 to 1966) and Chancellor (1966 to 1968).

The collection consists of a taped interview transcript with Upjohn at the University of Melbourne. Professor Geoffrey Blainey, Professor R.D. Wright and Frank Strahan had interviewed Upjohn. There are occasional gaps in the transcript.

Victor Hugo Wallace graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (1918) and a Doctor of Medicine (1920). He was a resident at the Melbourne Hospital (1918 to 1919) and the Queen's Memorial Infectious Diseases Hospital (1919 to 1920).

After studying in Melbourne and Edinburgh, and practising in Port Moresby, Wallace established gynaecological and general practices in Melbourne in 1927. His consuming medical interests were birth control and drug addiction and he lectured and published on family planning, marriage guidance, eugenics, and world peace, disarmament and government.

The Wallace collection includes correspondence about birth control and contraception Photocopies of items from collections held at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and the British Library are open and listed in the alongside restricted material.

Please note: Interview with the widow of Dr Wallace, Eugenics Society papers, medical publications and patient history cards are restricted and may not be available for immediate retrieval.

Sir Ian Jeffreys Wood graduated at the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (1927), and a Doctor of Medicine (1930). Wood worked for some years at the Melbourne and Children's Hospitals and by the outbreak of World War Two, Wood had entered upon research involving blood transfusions and blood preservation techniques that lead to the establishment of blood banking in Australia. After war service in various military hospitals, he joined the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, as Assistant Director and Head of the Clinical Research Unit, in association with the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

The Wood collection includes papers on autoimmune disease, blood transfusion, hepatitis, hydatid, Interferon, malaria, radiation, snakes and spiders, correspondence, lecture notes and photographic slides.

Please note: This collection is partly restricted and may not be available for immediate retrieval.