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The W. Anstey Giles Memorial Lecture is delivered at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the South Australian Committee.
This lecture, formerly the Annual Lecture, was first given under this name in 1953. It commemorates the contributions to surgery of William Anstey Giles (1860-1944), one of the founders of the College. A member of an eminent pioneering family of South Australia, Giles was educated at Clifton School in Bristol and graduated from the medical school at Edinburgh University in 1882.
He subsequently undertook postgraduate study with Adam Politzer in Vienna (Austria) and specialised in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. He returned to Adelaide in 1885 and in due course built up a large general practice. He was appointed lecturer in otology at the University of Adelaide in 1886 and joined the (Royal) Adelaide Hospital as assistant surgeon in 1887.
His career flourished, and he ultimately became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1895 and 1902), Registrar to the Medical Board of South Australia and consultant surgeon to the (Royal) Adelaide Hospital. He was the first chairman of the South Australian Regional Committee of the College (1928-1932).
Giles, with others in the profession, endured a very difficult period in the history of medicine in South Australia. In 1896 teaching at the hospital and the medical school was suspended when the government dismissed the board of management. The honorary medical staff then resigned en masse, leaving the students without any tutelage. Not until 1901 did the staff return and clinical teaching resume.
Giles was a man of commanding presence and irascible temper. Whatever he undertook was done with energy and enthusiasm. He was a strict adherent of aseptic procedures and a prolific contributor to the medical literature on a wide range of topics. When speaking about the foundation of the College, he said, "Its objective was to make more perfect the art and science of surgery, and to give the best possible service to the community".
Award recipients
2022 - Ms Maggie Beer AO - Society's Challenge - Way Beyond Politics
2021 - Dr James Muecke AM - Blinded
2020 - Ms Natasha Stott Despoja AO - The Shadow Pandemic - inequality and violence
2019 - Dr Richard (Harry) Harris
2018 - Professor Peter Rathjen
2017 - Katie Sarah
2016 - Dr Gill Hicks
2015 - Malcolm (Mal) Hyde AO
2014 - Professor Manny Noakes
2013 - The Hon. Ian McLachlan
2012 - Professor Suzanne Miller
2011 - Mr John Ellice-Flint
2010 - Mr Andrew Sais
2009 - Professor Glyn Jamieson
2008 - Associate Professor Mohan Rao
2007 - Mr John Crozier
2006 - Professor Bruce Mann
2005 - Professor Fiona Wood
2004 - Major General D Lewis
2003 - J.E. Gilligan - From Horses to Helicopters
2002 - Associate Professor R.J. Bauze - Australia - What Place in Asia?
2001 - D. Beard - Medical Misadventures which Befell the South Australian Explorers
2000 - Professor Emeritus J.M. Little - Science, Soft Facts and Money: Medicine in the Last Half of the Twentieth Century
1999 - R. Britten-Jones - Half a Century of Surgery : A Personal View
1998 - Associate Professor M. Tyler - Frogs and Drugs
1997 - J.K.A. Clezy - Surgical Contributions from the Third World
1996 - Professor V. Marshall - Surgery in the Next Millennium
1995 - J.P. Royle - Carotid Endarterectomy: Past, Present and Future
1994 - Professor Emeritus R.C. Bennett - The Heritage and Fellowship of Surgery
1993 - Professor D.A. Simpson - Head Injury in Australia - The Changing Pattern
1992 - Professor W.A.J. Morrison - Reconstructive Plastic Surgery to the 1990s
1991 - G.W. Trinca - The Origin and Achievements of the Road Trauma Committee
1990 - Professor T.S. Reeve PRACS - Thyroid Cancer and the Surgery
1989 - Professor G.M. Clark - Bionic Ear and Beyond
1988 - Professor A.G.R. Sheil - New Frontiers of Transplantation Surgery
1987 - E. Durham Smith PRACS - The Independence of Surgeons
1986 - H.D. Sutherland - Administration in Teaching Hospitals
1985 - M.K. Smith PRACS - Surgical Care : A Global Problem
1984 - Professor R.J. Lusby - Surgery for Stroke Prevention
1983 - B. McC. O'Brien - The Changing Patterns of Reconstructive Microsurgery
1982 - H.M.J. Windsor - A Cardiac Surgeon in China
1981 - M. Menelaus - Opening and Closing the Growth Plate
1980 - Professor R.J. Last - Joint Movements and Muscle Actions
1979 - Professor G.D. Tracy PRACS - The Assessment of Standards in surgical Practice
1978 - Professor M. Allgower - Management of a Patient with Multiple Injuries
1977 - Professor J. Ludbrook - Is Surgery a Scientific Discipline?
1976 - J. Estcourt Hughes - Background for a College
1975 - Professor J. Watts - A Testing Time for Surgeons
1974 - A.C. McEachern - Surgical Training - Past and Future
1973 - Professor R.C. Bennett - Sphincter-saving Operations on the Rectum
1972 - Professor G.J. Fraenkel - Objectives in Patient Care. Teaching and Research at Flinders University Medical School : A Personal View
1971 - Professor A.B. Ferguson - Nature and Care of Osteoarthritis of the Hip
1970 - L. Nyhus - Evolution of Surgery of Duodenal Ulcer
1969 - Professor R.M. Mitchell - Management of Organ Failure associated with Shock
1968 - B. Cooke - Closed Abdominal Injuries
1967 - Professor G. Milton - Melanoma
1966 - T.A. Ackland - Dilemma and Decision : Problems of Breast Carcinoma
1965 - B.T. Keon - Cohen : Reflections on the Knee Joint
1964 - R. Hooper - Head Injuries - Past, Present and Future
1963 - E.S.R. Hughes - Surgery in Ulcerative Colitis
1962 - H.H. Eddey - Tumours of the Salivary Glands
1961 - Sir Douglas Miller - Invertebral Disc Disease
1960 - S.C. Fitzpatrick - Hydatid Disease
1959 - Professor R.P. Jepson - Diagnosis and Surgical Management of Peripheral Vascular Disease
1958 - Professor N.G. Sutton - Problems in Surgery of Pancreatitis
1957 - K.H.L. Kirkland - Urethral Stricture
1956 - Professor M.R. Ewing - The Tongue
1955 - B.H. Muir - Problems in the Treatment of Goitre
1954 - R.N. Howard - Neonatal Intestinal Obstruction
1953 - K.W. Starr - Shibboleths of the Surgery of Peptic Ulcer
1952 - F.G. Clark - Some Links between Medicine, Surgery and Thoracic Surgery
1951 - J. Turner - Surgery of Malignant Tumours of the Anal Canal and Rectum