Lectures and Prizes

Also view: Awards and Lectures and Prizes - Regions

American College of Surgeons' Lecture
Archibald Watson Medal and Lecture
B K Rank Lecture
Clinical Committee Prize
Sir Edward (Weary) Dunlop Memorial Lecture 
George Adlington Syme Oration
Gordon Gordon-Taylor Medal and Lecture
Gordon Gordon-Taylor Prize
Hamilton Russell Medal and Lecture
Herbert Moran Memorial Lecture in Medical History
James Pryor Memorial Lecture
Kenneth Fitzpatrick Russell Memorial Lecture
Peter Jones Memorial Oration Medal
President's Lecture
Rupert Downes Memorial Lecture
William Manchester Lecture

American College of Surgeons' Lecture

The American College of Surgeons provides for a Travelling Scholarship for a young ACS Fellow to visit Australia and New Zealand. The purpose of this fellowship is to encourage international exchange of information concerning surgical science, practice, and education and to establish professional and academic collaborations and friendships. The recipient of this scholarship presents the American College of Surgeons' lecture and visits several medical centres in the Australasian region.

Lecturers  

Archibald Watson Medal and Lecture

Archibald Watson is one of the most colourful characters in Australasian medical history. The legends surrounding his life may tend to overshadow his achievements as a surgeon and anatomist, but his legacy as a teacher and mentor to generations of Australian surgeons cannot be overestimated. Wood Jones considered him "without doubt the finest topographical anatomist of his time". Surgeons of the calibre of Newland, Devine and Dunhill sought his advice when faced with difficult cases.

He was born at Tarcutta on 27 July 1849, the eldest of the four sons of Sydney Grandison Watson, pioneer pastoralist of the Upper Murray, who settled at Walwa in 1846, and held leases on more than 100,000 acres along the southern bank of the Murray. His three younger brothers, Sydney, Harry and McGregor, became pioneers in Queensland, occupying, at the ages of 16 to 18 years, the vast station at Gregory Downs in the Gulf country in 1870.

As the eldest, Archibald was sent to Melbourne to be educated at Scotch College. On leaving school his restless spirit called him in search of adventure in the South Seas, and he took passage in the brig Carl, an ill-fated voyage that was to haunt him for the rest of his life. Arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murder, he skipped bail and returned in secret to the Upper Murray, while his father arranged for him to flee the country.

His experiences aboard the Carl determined him on a career in medicine. He travelled via America to England, then to the continent, taking up his studies at Göttingen (Germany), where in 1878 he received his doctorate cum laude with a thesis entitled Über das Fibradenom der Mamma. He then proceeded to Paris (France), gaining a second doctorate in 1880 with his thesis Étude sur le Traitement des Hernies Estranglées et Crurales Vulgaires.

In 1884 Watson gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) and returned to Australia to take up the Elder Chair in Anatomy in Adelaide. Here he built his unrivalled reputation as a teacher and consultant. He later became lecturer in Operative Surgery, pathologist and finally surgeon to the Adelaide Hospital.

In 1900 he obtained leave from Adelaide to attend the Boer Wars in Africa. Afterwards, to the chagrin of the university, he travelled to England to catch up with old friends. He returned to the Elder Chair in 1902, but not without some dispute.

In 1914, at the age of 65, Watson enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and was sent as chief pathologist to Gallipoli, Lemnos and Egypt. At the end of the war, he returned to Adelaide, retired from his positions and was succeeded by Frederic Wood Jones. He went to live in Darwin, where he did much to improve the standards of surgical care in the tropics.

Thereafter he withdrew from active practice, spending summer in Melbourne and Adelaide, the winter months on Thursday Island and visiting his brothers on Gregory Downs. From 1936 he made Thursday Island his permanent home. Feeling that the advance of age was impairing his mobility, at the age of 86 he took delivery of a new motor bike.

Archibald Watson died in his sleep on 30 July 1940 and was buried on Thursday Island. As J. "Orm" Smith noted, "He left little behind him in the shape of original discoveries or classical surgical or anatomical writings. His great contributions were contemporary...". Some 40 of his surgical notebooks are now in the possession of the College.

Conditions

The lecture is arranged jointly between the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

• The Archibald Watson Memorial Lecture shall be delivered every second year.
• The lecture shall be given in succession in the 6 Australian states, beginning with South Australia (by convention, it is now delivered at the Annual Scientific Congress).
• Subject to the approval of the Presidents of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the lecture shall be on some subject of anatomical, surgical or medical interest.
• The award takes the form of a bronze medal.

Lecturers

B. K. Rank Lecture

Sir Benjamin Rank (1911-2002) was one of the world's most distinguished plastic surgeons. He was born at Heidelberg, Victoria, and attended the local state school before being sent to Melbourne's Scotch College. He studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating MB Bin 1934. After a year's residency at Royal Melbourne Hospital, he obtained his Master of Surgery in 1937 and was admitted Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) the following year.

In England he worked at St James' Hospital, Balham, in 1938 and 1939, and St Bartholomew's Hospital, Hill End, in 1939 and 1940. With the outbreak of war, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and was sent to Egypt, first to the 2/4th Australian General Hospital, then to the 2/2nd AGH at El-Qantara, where he was promoted Major-i.-c., Faciomaxillary and Plastic Surgery Unit.

In 1942 he was brought back to Australia to set up the Plastic and Maxillofacial Unit at the Heidelberg Military Hospital. Lieutenant Colonel Rank gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 1943.

After hostilities ceased he returned to the Royal Melbourne Hospital to take up the first plastic surgery post in Australia. He remained with the hospital in various capacities until 1982. In association with Alan Wakefield, he wrote Surgery of Repair as Applied to Hand Injuries (1953), which quickly became a classic in its field.

In 1955 he was created CMG and also joined the Council of the College. He was censor-in-chief (1961-1962), vice-president (1962 and 1964-1965), Chairman of the Executive Committee (1958-1961 and 1964-1968), and president (1966-1968).

Many honours came his way. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPS) in 1969, of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) in 1973 and of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in 1974. He was Sims Commonwealth Travelling Professor of Surgery in 1958 and President of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in 1965. He was Syme Orator at Adelaide in 1976. He was knighted in 1972 and created KStJ in 1988. He was also a member of the prestigious James IV Association of Surgeons and an honorary member of Société Française de Chirurgie Plastique et Réconstructive. He served as Chairman of Interplast Australia between 1984 and 1993.

His interests outside the field of operative surgery were numerous. He was Chairman and President of St John's Ambulance Victoria from 1974 to 1983. He played an active role in medical aid under the Colombo Plan, visiting India, Pakistan, Malaya and Singapore. He made significant contributions to surgical history, including the establishment of the Archives Unit at Royal Melbourne Hospital. His other great interest was painting.

Conditions

• The lecture shall be known as The B.K. Rank Lecture.
• The lecture shall be delivered at the Annual Scientific Congress of the College, under the aegis of the Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Lecturers

Clinical Committee Prize

The Clinical Committee Prize is awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest marks in the Clinical Examination.  This prize, a certificate instigated by the Board of Basic Surgical Training in 2003, is awarded twice twice per year, in February and June.

Recipients

Sir Edward (Weary) Dunlop Memorial Lecture

Ernest Edward Dunlop was born on 12 July 1907 at Wangaratta, Victoria. He began his medical studies at the Victorian College of Pharmacy, winning the Gold Medal in 1927 and 1928. Having, however, decided on a career in surgery, he graduated Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Melbourne in 1934, and Master of Surgery in 1937. During his undergraduate days he acquired the nickname "Weary" and showed himself to be an outstanding sportsman, especially in rugby union and boxing. He went to England to study for his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1938.

On the outbreak of war he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and served in Palestine, Greece and Crete in 1940 and 1941. Transferred to the Far East, he was appointed C.O. of No.1 Allied General Hospital in Java, Indonesia, only three weeks before the Dutch surrender. Having fallen into enemy hands, he was sent to various prisoner of war camps in Java, Malaya and finally Thailand, where he joined thousands of allied prisoners on the infamous Burma Railway. Here his qualities of stoicism and doggedness enabled him to operate tirelessly on sick and injured men with the most primitive of tools and in the crudest of facilities, and to protect his men from the worst excesses of their captors' brutality.

After the war he returned to Australia, teaching anatomy and pathology at the University of Melbourne (1946-1949) and taking up numerous hospital posts at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the (Royal) Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Clinic. He gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 1947.

His courageous and determined dedication to the care of wounded, sick and dying patients, his fortitude and resourcefulness in the midst of appalling conditions in the Japanese labour camps became the stuff of legend. He was described as "a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and suffering". Mentioned in despatches during the course of the war, he was appointed OBE in 1947. Many other distinctions followed. He was created CMG in 1965, KStJ in 1982, AC in 1987, and he received numerous honorary awards from governments and institutions around the world. He was named Australian of the Year in 1977.

His experiences on the Burma Railway made him a devoted worker in the cause of peace. In the wider medical community, he was involved with Red Cross, the Anti-Cancer Council and the Victorian Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency. He was Chairman of the Australian-Asian Association from 1965, was active in the Colombo Plan, Legacy and ever concerned with the welfare of ex-prisoners of war.

In 1987 the Weary Dunlop Boon Pong Exchange Fellowship was instituted to honour him and the memory of Boon Pong, the brave river trader who supplied him secretly with food and medicines to help relieve the sufferings of the allied prisoners.

Professionally he could be described as a general surgeon with a preference for the thorax and abdomen. Among his surgical mentors he numbered Sir Alan Newton, Sir Victor Hurley, Sir William Upjohn and Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor. Sir Thomas Dunhill was his role model.

"Weary" Dunlop died of pneumonia on 2 July 1993.

Conditions

• The name of the lectureship shall be The Sir Edward ("Weary") Dunlop Memorial Lecture.
• The object of the lectureship is to acknowledge Sir Edward's unique achievement as a symbol of strength, fortitude and hope for the future that inspired the men who were his patients and brothers-in-arms while prisoners of war of the Japanese in the infamous death camps of the Second World War, particularly in Singapore and Thailand. It is fitting that, after the war, Sir Edward should devote so much of his time to healing the wounds of international strife and forging links of friendship within South-East Asia, and particularly between Australia and Japan.
• The lectureship should emphasise the twin virtues of hope in adversity, and friendship and forgiveness between victor and vanquished.
• The lecture will be given at such places and at such intervals as Council may from time to time determine. It would be appropriate that it should be given under the aegis of Section(s) of History and/or Military Surgery.
• The Section(s) of History and/or Military Surgery shall make the choice of lecturer, confirmed by Council, but the Section(s) may delegate the right of selection of subject to the lecturer.
• The objectives set out in items 2 and 3 should be followed with a wide variety of interpretation.
• The award shall take the form of a bronze medal.

Lecturers  

George Adlington Syme Oration

Sir George Adlington Syme (1859-1929) was one of the founders, and first President, of the College. He was born at Nottingham and came to Australia as a young child. He gained his medical qualifications from the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1881. After a year at the Melbourne Hospital he went to England for postgraduate study, worked at King's College with Sir Joseph Lister and gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) in 1885.

Back in Australia he returned to the Melbourne Hospital and also held honorary posts at St Vincent's and the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women. A capable administrator, he ultimately became President of the Melbourne Hospital. He was President of the Victoria Branch of the BMA in 1908 and 1919. During World War I he served as chief of surgical staff in the 1st AGH and was present at Gallipoli aboard the hospital ship Gascon. He retired from active practice in 1924 and received a knighthood in that year.

It was Syme's reputation and standing within the profession that secured the support for the foundation of a College of Surgeons. With Hamilton Russell and Hugh Devine, he signed the "Foundation Letter" of 19 November 1925, and in 1926 was given the authority to proceed with setting up the constitutional machinery for the organisation. At the Australasian Medical Congress in Dunedin in February 1927, he was unanimously elected President of the College of Surgeons of Australasia.

Sir George Syme died in office on 19 April 1929 and was buried in the Brighton Cemetery. His widow, Mabel, provided the College with a sum of money, the interest from which was to provide the funds for an annual oration to perpetuate his memory.

The first Syme Oration was delivered by Charles H. Fagge FRCS in Wilson Hall at the University of Melbourne on 17 February 1932, in conjunction with the presentation of the Great Mace. The oration is now delivered in conjunction with convocation at the Annual Scientific Congress.

Orators

Gordon Gordon-Taylor Medal and Lecture

The Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor Memorial Lecture was founded in 1964 with the proceeds of an appeal run by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in association with the Middlesex Hospital, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, to perpetuate the memory of Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor KBE CB FRCS FRACS.

Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor was one of the finest British surgeons of the 20th century. He was born in Aberdeen in 1878 and educated at the University of Aberdeen, where he graduated Master of Arts in 1898. In that year he moved to London and entered the Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1903. He gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) in 1906.

Gordon-Taylor quickly gained an enviable reputation as a bold yet careful surgeon. During World War I he served with the rank of major in a number of casualty clearing stations, gaining valuable experience in the treatment of large abdominal wounds, and became renowned for his successful multiple resections of the intestine. He acted for a time as consulting surgeon to the 4th Army in France. At this time he came into contact with surgeons from Australia and New Zealand.

After the war he returned to the Middlesex Hospital and in 1920 succeeded Sir John Bland-Sutton as surgeon. Surgical training was one of his great interests. He lectured and examined in anatomy for the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSE) Primary and in 1934 travelled to Australia as Visiting Examiner for the RCSE. On this occasion he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS). He formed very close ties with the RACS and came to regard the College as his second spiritual home.

On the outbreak of World War II he again enlisted but was rejected by the army on grounds of age. Incensed, he offered his services to the Royal Navy, which accepted him without hesitation and gave him the rank of surgeon rear-admiral. As consulting surgeon he travelled widely to many of the theatres of war, and in this capacity he visited the College in 1945. He returned in 1947 to deliver the Syme Oration, and at this time the University of Melbourne awarded him an Hon. LLD.

In 1948 a group of RACS Fellows, winners of the Hallett Prize, created a fund for a prize for the candidate obtaining the highest marks in the Part 1 Examination, to be known as The Gordon-Taylor Prize. Sir Gordon travelled to Australia again in 1952. In 1960 the College commissioned a portrait of him from the eminent painter James Gunn RA.

He had an abiding interest in the RCSE. Elected to Council in 1932, he was vice-president from 1941 to 1943. He was Hunterian Professor in 1929, 1942 and 1944. His education in classics made him an excellent public speaker, and he was always in demand for lectures and orations. During the course of his career he delivered almost every named lecture in the surgical world, including the inaugural Moynihan Lecture in Leeds in 1940 and the Harveian Oration in 1949.

His life was lived for surgery. He took infrequent holidays and had few other interests, apart from dancing, the classics and cricket. He walked several miles every day for most of his life and nurtured a hearty dislike of motor cars.

He was tragically, and ironically, run down by a motor car while crossing the road outside Lord's Cricket Ground on 2 September 1960 and later died of his injuries. His passing was mourned by the entire world of surgery. At the Council Meeting of 20 October 1960, the following resolution was passed:

"The Council of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons has received the news of the death of Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor with the greatest regret; and places on record its appreciation of, and gratitude for, his many kind services to the Fellows and Council of this College."

Conditions

• The Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor Memorial Lecture should be delivered annually. In any 3-year period 2 lectures should be delivered in the United Kingdom and 1 in Australia.
• Nominations for the Lecture in Australia should be made by the President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Nominations for the lectures to be delivered in the United Kingdom rotate between the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSE) and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd). Nominations from RCSE to be made by the President (via the Fellowship Election and Prize Committee), in conjunction with the Senior Surgeon of the Middlesex Hospital. Alternately, the President of RCSEd will make a nomination. Nominations do not have to be agreed by all 3 Colleges.
• The subject of the lecture may be on any aspect of surgery and is entirely the choice of the lecturer.
• Expenses for travel and subsistence up to £250 should be provided (the honorarium was discontinued in 1994).
• The investment of the fund, and the general administrative arrangements, shall be the responsibility of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The local arrangements for each lecture shall be made by the institution at which it is to be delivered.
• The award takes the form of a bronze medal, with the portrait of Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor on the obverse and emblems of the 4 sponsoring bodies on the reverse.

Lecturers (Australasia only) 

Gordon Gordon-Taylor Prize

In 1948, five Fellows of the College who had won the Hallett Prize on the Primary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England gave £30 each to create a fund, the interest from which would provide a prize to be awarded in connection with the Primary Examination of the College and to be named in honour of Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor.

The five were:

• J S McMahon
• R S Lawson
• H H Eddey
• K W Starr
• Grayton Brown.

In subsequent years, other Fellows that also won the Hallett Prize have donated to the fund: R P Melville, C B R Mann, W J Cook, B J Dooley, J N Yelland, G Anderson and L A Riddell.

If 2 or more candidates are found to have been allocated the same mark, it shall be open to the examiners to take such steps as they may think desirable to enable them to adjudicate the matter.

This prize, a bronze medal, is awarded each year to the candidate who gains the highest marks in each of the Generic Surgical Sciences Examinations.

The Gordon Gordon-Taylor Prize is complemented by the Clinical Committee Prize, (a certificate), awarded to the candidate who receives the top mark in the Clinical Examination.

Recipients 

Hamilton Russell Medal and Lecture

Robert Hamilton Russell (1860-1933) was one of the founders of the College and its first censor-in-chief. He was a farmer's son, born at Chartham near Farningham in Kent. He received his medical training at King's College Hospital, where in 1883-1884 he became the last house surgeon to serve under Sir Joseph Lister. After several years in a number of hospitals in England and on the continent, he gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) in 1889, and migrated to Australia for health reasons.

On arriving in Melbourne he set up practice in Hawthorn, but met with little success. However, he did make the acquaintance of a promising young pianist called Percy Grainger. In 1891 he applied for the position of medical superintendent at a country hospital. The hospital committee refused to believe that a man with such qualifications would be interested in such a rustic posting, unless of course he had a problem with alcohol, and accordingly turned him down.

Success did come in 1892, when he was appointed to the surgical staff of the Children's Hospital. His musical talents, which were considerable, had made him known to a number of influential personalities on the Women's Committee, and he also had the support of Dr A. Jeffries Wood, one of the notable physicians on the staff. During his time at the Children's Hospital, Russell began his important work on the aetiology and treatment of inguinal hernia.

In 1901 he was appointed to the surgical staff of the Alfred Hospital. Here he did the work for which he is best remembered, on the treatment of fractures, particularly of the long bones. He devised a simple but ingenious method of traction for fractures of the femur. He remained an honorary surgeon to the Alfred Hospital until 1920. He then returned to the Children's Hospital as honorary consultant, and joined the Melbourne Hospital as consultant of fractures.

He was President of the Medical Society of Victoria in 1903, and in 1920 he convened the Surgical Association of Melbourne. He was one of the signatories to the "Foundation Letter" of 19 November 1925, and contributed greatly to the foundation of the College by convincing the Surgical Association of Melbourne to disband in favour of the new organisation.

He was elected to the original Council of the College of Surgeons of Australasia. He was appointed the first Director-General, then Censor-in-Chief, of the College, retaining this position until his death. On 30 April 1933 he died of injuries received when his car collided with a centre-road lamp post. Russell thus has claim to being the College's earliest road trauma victim.

The lecture was founded by the College in 1935 to perpetuate his memory.

Conditions

• The name of the lecture shall be The Hamilton Russell Memorial Lecture.
• The object of the lectureship is to perpetuate the memory of the first Censor-in-Chief of the College, the late Robert Hamilton Russell.
• The lecture shall be given at such places and at such intervals as the Council may from time to time determine.
• The choice of the lecturer and subject shall be made by the Council, but the Council may delegate its right of selection of the subject to the lecturer. So far as may be possible, the lecturer shall give an address on some subject to which reference has been made in the published writings of the late Robert Hamilton Russell.
• The award shall take the form of a bronze medal.

Lecturers

Herbert Moran Memorial Lecture in Medical History

Herbert Michael Moran (1885-1945) was born in Sydney. He graduated from the University of Sydney in 1908. In his young days he earned a considerable reputation as a rugby player. Following his graduation he went to England as captain of an international football team, and stayed there for some time doing postgraduate.

In World War I he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and served in France and the Middle East. After the war he became interested in the new cancer treatment of radium therapy being developed in France and Sweden. He later pioneered the surgical application of radium in New South Wales, and indeed in Australia. He obtained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 1929.

Sir Douglas Miller recalled Moran as "of striking appearance, tall and handsome, and possessed [of] great personal charm. He had a broad learning and culture, and was well versed in the literature, both general and medical, of France and Italy, as well as having a wide knowledge of English literature. Himself a master of English prose, he wrote three books in beautiful English of inimitable style.

"He was a man of delicate temper, inclined to be suspicious, hurt, offended and disappointed by people who did not fulfil his high standards. The span of his professional career in Sydney was punctuated by premature retirement from good hospital positions. He was not prepared to put up with conditions of which he did not approve."

Disillusioned, Moran left Sydney in the early 1930s, never to practice there again. He lived for a few years in Italy, where he identified with the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. He again became disillusioned and on the outbreak of World War II returned to England and rejoined the RAMC. At this time he was operated on for the removal of a mole, but the growth was only partially excised.

Herbert Moran died on 20 November 1945 of malignant melanoma.

Conditions

• The name of the lecture shall be The Herbert Moran Memorial Lecture in Medical History.
• The lecture shall be delivered in each state of the Commonwealth of Australia and in New Zealand, at such times and in such places as the Council may determine.
• The lecture shall be delivered during the course of a state or New Zealand Annual Meeting (by convention, the lecture is now delivered at the Annual Scientific Congress).
• The subject of the lecture shall be of medical historical interest.
• The lecturer shall be appointed from time to time by the Council.
• The award shall take the form of a bronze medal.

Lecturers

James Pryor Memorial Lecture

Jim Pryor was born at Horsham, Victoria, on 14 November 1928, and died at Ballarat, Victoria, on 7 March 2002.

He gained his medical degrees at the University of Melbourne in 1950, with Honours in Surgery. After a residency at St Vincent's Hospital, he travelled to the United Kingdom to obtain his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS). He returned to Australia in 1959 and obtained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) the following year.

He lived in Ballarat, where he developed a broad and extensive practice. He became closely involved with community activities, especially the Ballarat Football Club. In his later years he devoted much of his time and energy to the establishment of the Sir Albert Coates Memorial Trust, and to the erection of a statue honouring the city's surgical hero, who had been one of his teachers in surgery.

Recognising an increasingly litigious mood within society and the impact this would have on surgical practice, Jim Pryor played a key role in the establishment of the Medico-Legal Section of the College. He was its inaugural chairman. In addition, he made an outstanding contribution to provincial and rural surgery.

Conditions

• The name of the lectureship shall be The James Pryor Memorial Lecture.
• The object of the lectureship is to acknowledge Jim Pryor's achievements in setting up the Medico-Legal Section within the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
• The lectureship will replace the existing Foundation Lecture of the Medico-Legal Section.
• The lecture will be given at the time of the Annual Scientific Congress, under the aegis of the Medico-Legal Section.
• The Section will be responsible for the choice of lecturer and subject, but the Section may delegate the choice of subject to the lecturer.
• There will be no tangible reward for the delivery of the lecture.

Lecturers   

Kenneth Fitzpatrick Russell Memorial Lecture

The Kenneth Fitzpatrick Russell Memorial Lecture was founded in 1991 to perpetuate the memory of Professor Ken Russell (1911-1987).

The son of a dentist, he was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated in medicine in 1935. After service in World War II, he decided to devote his talents to anatomy, and was Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy at Melbourne from 1948 to 1968. In 1968 the University of Melbourne conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Letters, the only medical graduate of the university to achieve this distinction. In the next year the university awarded him a Personal Chair in Anatomy and Medical History.

His contributions to scholarship in the history of medicine were outstanding, and he was universally regarded as the doyen of medical historians in Australia. In 1963 he produced his bibliography British Anatomy 1525-1800, a classic of its kind. He edited the ANZ Journal of Surgery from 1949 to 1967. In 1978 he was awarded the rare academic honour of being presented with a Festschrift by the AMA Section of Medical History.

Ken Russell played an instrumental role in the acquisition of the Cowlishaw Collection. This has come to be recognized as the most important collection of rare and historic medical books in Australasia, and its procurement for the College was a major strategic coup. He was also Reader to the Gordon Craig Library and a member of the College's Library Committee, from 1945 to 1987.

Conditions

• The lecture shall be known as The Kenneth Fitzpatrick Russell Memorial Lecture.
• The lecture shall normally be delivered at the College's headquarters in Melbourne.
• The lecturer shall be appointed every 2 or 3 years as determined by Council (by convention the lecture is now delivered every 2 years, in association with the Cowlishaw Symposium)
• The lecturer shall be given at least 12 months' notice, in order to research for the preparation of the lecture.
• The lecturer is expected to draw upon the resources of the College's collection of rare and historic books in the preparation of the lecture, and to make specific reference to the College's collections of historical books and artefacts during the course of the lecture.
• The subject of the lecture shall be of anatomical, surgical or historical interest.
• The lecture shall be open to anyone interested in the history of medicine and shall not be restricted to Fellows of the College.
• The manuscript of the lecture shall be prepared ready for publication in the ANZ Journal of Surgery, of which journal K.F. Russell was editor for 18 years. Copies of the lecture will be made available for the audience at the end of the presentation.
• The award shall take the form of a bronze medal, suitably inscribed, which shall be presented to the lecturer at the conclusion of the lecture.
• Council may allocate sufficient travel and living expenses to facilitate the presentation of the lecture.

Lecturers   

Peter Jones Memorial Oration Medal

Peter Griffith Jones (1922-1995) was one of Australia's outstanding paediatric surgeons. He graduated MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1945, and took up a residency at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. In 1948 he was awarded the first Cleveland Fellowship to the University Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. From there he went to London to pursue his studies at the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, under the guidance of Sir Denis Browne. He obtained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) in 1950.

He returned to Melbourne in 1953 and took up a staff appointment at the Royal Children's Hospital. He remained attached to this hospital until his retirement in 1988. He was an enthusiastic teacher and researcher, with special expertise in torticollis (wry neck), infantile tumours, neonatal surgery and cardiac surgery of the young. In 1995 he was the first to receive the Distinguished Service Award of the Royal Children's Hospital.

In 1957 Peter Jones became one of the first two surgeons to gain the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in Paediatric Surgery.

Peter Jones was also very active in the broader profession, serving terms as Vice-President of the Medical Defence Association of Victoria, and as President of the Paediatric Society of Victoria, of the Medico-Legal Society of Victoria and of the Paediatric Association of Australia. He was Chairman of the Victorian State Committee of the College and in 1987 was elected to the Council, on which he served until 1994.

He had a talent for writing and publishing, becoming the founding editor of the Australian Paediatric Journal, and, during his time as demonstrator in Paediatric Surgery at the University of Melbourne, editor of Chiron, the journal of the University of Melbourne Medical Society. He was also a director of Blackwell's Scientific Publishing Australia. Another of his great interests was heraldry, and he designed coats-of-arms for the Royal Children's Hospital and the Medical Defence Association of Victoria. His interest in heritage led to his appointment as Honorary Principal Curator and Honorary Librarian of the RACS.

The oration was instituted to perpetuate the memory of a man of great talent and wide interests, who made a significant and sustained contribution to surgery.

Conditions

• The Peter Jones Memorial Oration will normally be delivered biannually, but at the discretion of Council may be delivered annually.
• The orator is to be appointed by Council following recommendations from the Executive Committee of the Australasian Association of Paediatric Surgeons.
• The oration will be given on the occasion of a meeting of the Australasian Association of Paediatric Surgeons, or at an appropriate meeting of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
• The appointee is styled The Peter Jones Memorial Orator.
• The award will take the form of a bronze medal.

Orators

President's Lecture

In 1989 the then president T.S. Reeve noted that the College sometimes missed an opportunity to be identified with a significant speaker or significant event, due to the limited number of named lectures available at that time, and the conditions that applied to them. He suggested that a lecture be established whereby the president could invite persons of note to address the College. Council resolved to establish this lecture in October 1989. It is to be delivered from time to time by an eminent person of the president's choice, on any subject.

Conditions

• The lecture shall be known as The President's Lecture.
• The lecture will be given at the invitation of the president.
• The lecturer shall be an eminent person visiting or resident in Australia or New Zealand.
• The choice of topic shall be at the discretion of the lecturer.
• The award will take the form of a bronze medal.

Lecturers   

Rupert Downes Memorial Lecture

This lecture, sponsored by his friends following his death, is designed to perpetuate the memory of Major-General Rupert Major Downes CMG VD KGStJ MS FRACS, Director-General of Medical Services (1934-1941), Inspector-General of Medical Services (1941-1942), Director of Medical Services - 2nd Australian Army (1942-1945; killed on active service) and a foundation Fellow of this College.

He was born in 1885, the son of Major-General Major Francis Downes CMG, Commandant of Military Forces in the Colony of Victoria. At an early age he showed an interest in soldiering and while still a boy became a trumpeter in the Victorian Volunteer Artillery. He was educated at Haileybury College and the University of Melbourne, graduating MB ChB in 1907. He gained his MS in 1911, receiving his degree on the same day as (Sir) Alan Newton, who had been a year or so behind him at Haileybury. His friendship with Newton was lifelong, and they worked together on many matters, especially during the World War II.

Immediately after graduation, Downes was commissioned in the Australian Army Medical Corps. On the outbreak of World War I he volunteered in the first Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and saw action at Gallipoli and in Palestine, where, as commander of the 3rd Light Horse Field Ambulance, he took part in the victorious march to Damascus. He attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was appointed CMG.

After the war he was appointed an honorary paediatric surgeon to the (Royal) Children's Hospital in Melbourne. He served for many years on the Victorian Branch Council of the BMA and was elected its President in 1935. He was Honorary Surgeon to the Governor-General (Lord Stonehaven) from 1927 to 1931. One of his greatest preoccupations during the interwar period, when defence expenditure was at an all-time low, was the maintenance of medical preparedness for war. He engaged his officers in army medical organisation and administration, in issues of equipment and supply, technical advances and field exercises.

His many other professional interests included physiotherapy training, first aid and the civil ambulance service. He lectured in medical ethics and demonstrated in anatomy at the University of Melbourne.

Major-General Downes was killed when his aircraft crashed on 5 March 1945. He was buried in Cairns Cemetery.

Conditions

• The sum of £640 shall be invested by the Council of the College and shall form the endowment for a triennial lecture to be entitled The Rupert Downes Memorial Lecture.
• Any sum, after payment of expenses, not so applied, shall be added to the capital and form part thereof.
• The lecturer shall be appointed every third year.
• The Council shall determine the place and time of the triennial lecture, which shall be open to all members of the medical profession, and such other guests as the Council may invite.
• The subject of the lecture shall be related to some aspect or aspects of military surgery, medical equipment (military and civil), the surgery of children, neurosurgery, general surgery, medical ethics or medical history; these being subjects in which Major-General Downes was particularly interested.
• The award shall take the form of a bronze medal.

Lecturers   

William Manchester Lecture

This lecture was established in 1989 to honour Sir William Manchester (1913-2001). It is delivered at the Annual Scientific Congress whenever it is held in New Zealand, and may be delivered at other times as determined by the New Zealand National Board.

William M. Manchester was born at Waimate in 1913. As a child he suffered a scalp laceration, which required stitching, and he was so impressed with the surgeon who treated him that he decided to become a doctor.

He studied medicine at the University of Otago, where he graduated MB ChB in 1938. In 1940 he enlisted in the New Zealand Medical Corps and was posted overseas with the 22nd NZ Infantry Battalion. In November 1940 he was seconded to train in plastic surgery in the United Kingdom, under Gillies, McIndoe and Mowlem, after which he was sent to 1 General Hospital at Helwan (Egypt) to set up the plastic and reconstructive surgery unit. After two years in the Middle East he was recalled to New Zealand as assistant surgeon in the Military Plastic Surgical Unit at Burwood Hospital, near Christchurch, becoming OC of the unit (1944-1947).

At the end of the war he was given the task of establishing New Zealand's first civilian plastic surgery unit at Burwood. Late in 1947 he returned to the United Kingdom for further post-graduate study, gaining his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) in 1949. He returned to New Zealand to take up a position at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland. He remained with the hospital for the rest of his working life, until his retirement in 1979.

He gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 1957. He served as an examiner and board member in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He was elected to the New Zealand Committee of the College in 1964 and became its Chairman in 1970. He played an instrumental role in the formation of the New Zealand Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, and was its inaugural Chairman in 1976. He was an active member of the International Confederation of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, as Secretary General (1967 to 1971) and as Vice-President of the 5th International Congress in Melbourne in 1971.

He was created CBE in 1972 for his services to plastic surgery, and elevated to KBE in 1987.

Conditions

• The lecture shall be known as The William Manchester Lecture.
• The lecture shall be delivered at the Annual Scientific Congress of the College whenever it is held in New Zealand, and may also be delivered at other times as determined by the New Zealand Committee.
• The lecturer must be an Australasian plastic surgeon who has made a significant contribution to the specialty of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in recent times.

Lecturers