Charles Brothers was descended from a Tasmanian pastoral family and was brought up on a farm in the north west. Instead of following the family tradition, he went on from Devonport High School to Melbourne to study medicine, where he was in residence at Queen's College. He rowed for Melbourne in the inter-university cup and played football for his college.

He qualified in 1927, with high honours, and was a resident at the Melbourne Hospital. After a period in general practice, he joined the Mental Diseases Department and worked at Sunbury, Bundoora and Mont Park. In 1936, he returned to Tasmania and became the superintendent of the Lachlan Park Hospital (now the Royal Derwent) and in 1946, was promoted to be Director of Mental Hygiene for Tasmania, a post he held with great distinction. During the war he was a major and senior psychiatrist to 111th Australian General Hospital, in addition to his ordinary duties. Despite his many applications, the Government would not release him for overseas service.

In 1951, he joined the new Mental Health Authority in Victoria as deputy chairman where I enjoyed a close friendship with him until his death in 1963. Alexander Kennedy, who made the review of the Victorian Mental Health Services prior to the Authority being appointed, wrote to me to say Charles Brothers was a first-class, admirable physician with a formidable stutter which varied under different circumstances! I learned later how, under its cloak, he took a long time to work out a reply to an aggressive barrister, whilst when he made the farewell speech to his old chief Dr Catarinich at the Windsor Hotel, he was word perfect after allaying his fears with the pre-dinner refreshments.

One of his responsibilities in the Authority was the appointment and supervision of the clinical staffs, whose numbers doubled to 4000 during his appointment. His intimate knowledge of them, as well as his patients, was encyclopaedic, often amusing, but never vindictive.

He was the president of the Australian Association of Psychiatrists in 1950, honorary psychiatrist to the Austin Hospital, the Peter MacCallum Clinic and the Bendigo Base Hospital.

In Tasmania he compiled a family tree of Huntington's chorea, which was of immense value and importance. In Victoria he extended these investigations, but died before he finished writing them up. They were completed by Graeme Robertson. He made a major contribution to medical history by his work on 'Early Victorian Psychiatry 1835-1905', which represents a vast amount of intimate and painstaking historical research.

In his visits around the State he collected material from the hospitals which formed the basis of the future Mental Health Museum. He was an expert on antiques and especially interested in old Australian furniture and silver. It was a delight to go around the galleries with him and it was then one appreciated his knowledge and reputation. He was also a keen gardener and worked there right up to his death. He was married, with two sons, both dental surgeons, and a daughter.