Tom Heale was born in Sydney where his father, who had a hankering to go on the land, was in business. This the father achieved when Tom was quite young and the family moved to Neerim North, deep in the wilds of Gippsland. The early days were strenuous, father and grandfather felling the tall trees of the region and clearing an extensive property. At this time a sister Elizabeth died from pneumonia at the age of two years and it seems that the effect of this on the parents left its mark on Tom.

Tom attended a small state school in Neerim North where as a left-handed bat and long kicking fullback he laid the foundation of a lifelong enthusiasm for cricket and football. He became a fervent follower of Melbourne Football Club during its heyday. The family still holds his collection of cricketing cartoons published in Melbourne and London by a Falconer uncle. Tom’s own ability and a gifted teacher in the little school won him a junior government scholarship to Wesley College just before the First World War. Tom finished at Wesley with the exhibition in English and scholarships to Melbourne University and Queen’s College, but an attack of rheumatic fever while at school exacted the orthodox prohibition of all sporting activities. First-class honours and the exhibition in surgery, a first in obstetrics and gynaecology, and not a first but a second in medicine, his future sphere, capped a brilliant course.

Dermatitis of the hands prevented a career in obstetrics and gynaecology, his first choice, and Tom embarked on the MRCP in London where a lifelong friendship and correspondence with Paul Wood began. He then worked in the diabetes units of Joslin in Boston and McLeod in Toronto. The discovery of insulin was a terrific stimulus and cemented his choice of diabetes as a specialty.

Tom began consultant practice with an appointment to the diabetes clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital; then in 1931 was appointed to St Vincent’s Hospital where he became physician to outpatients, then inpatients and finally consultant physician. He was known as ‘Taffy’ (naturally enough), and as ‘Dasher’ - this in honour of his muted manner. His teaching was of a high order. It was spattered with Oslerian gems: ‘Listen to the patient, he is telling you the diagnosis,’ and ‘Common conditions most commonly occur’. The respect and affection which his ex-residents held for him were evident at a farewell celebration held for him at the Windsor Hotel on the occasion of his retirement - a wonderful occasion and the largest such gathering I can recall.

He was a foundation committee member of the Diabetes Foundation of Victoria, where he worked persistently for the standardisation of insulin syringes. By the time of his death his son Walter had been admitted to the College and was launched on a career as a nephrologist, the protean manifestations of renal disease having attracted him as those of diabetes had his father.