Henry Fitzgerald Maudsley, known to his friends as ‘Hal’, was the grand-nephew of Henry Maudsley of Maudsley Hospital in London and the son of Sir Henry Maudsley, a distinguished physician. Sir Henry Maudsley practised in No.8 Collins Street, which was also the family home, later became Hal’s own rooms, and later still was the venue for meetings of the newly formed Association of Psychiatrists.

After attending Melbourne Grammar School, Hal moved on to Trinity College at the University of Melbourne to do a medical course. Actively interested in all sports, he attained a blue in cricket. He graduated in 1915 and in 1920 received his MD. He then went to London and worked in the Bethlem Hospital - a branch of Maudsley Hospital - obtaining the DPM, followed by the MRCP in 1922. In 1937 he was awarded his FRCP London, and the RACP honoured him the following year with a foundation Fellowship.

When he returned to Melbourne he had difficulty in establishing a full psychiatric practice, due no doubt to the prevailing reluctance in the medical world to accept psychiatry as a specialty in its own right. Hal Maudsley was a well trained physician. With his medical degrees and experience he could have quite capably filled the post of a consultant physician in Victoria. He also had experience in anaesthetics, having been on the staff of the Eye and Ear Hospital, temporarily, as an anaesthetist. When he started the psychiatric unit of the Melbourne Hospital, as it was then known, he practised specialist neurology and his old history cards reveal the training of a skilled neurologist, as well as that of a psychiatrist.

When I commenced work in succession to him at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1946, Hal remained on the staff as consultant psychiatrist and would come to outpatients regularly - an index of his love of the job and his idea of its importance, for at that time this work was on a purely honorary basis, and he had no thought of reward or monetary gain. Maudsley was an eclectic psychiatrist with an overall view of psychiatric theory and practice. There have been times in the recent past when Freudian theories have been very much in vogue and Freudian psychoanalysis widely practised. When I once asked Hal what he thought of Freudian psychology, his reply was ‘Uh’. That sums up his view on any school of psychiatric thought which excludes other concepts of psychiatry.

Hal Maudsley served in both World Wars. In the First World War, as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps he was awarded the Military Cross for exceptional bravery. In the Second World War, he became army consultant in psychiatry with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

A quiet, thoughtful man, he evolved plans in his own mind before announcing them and acting on them. This is well illustrated by an account of how the Association of Psychiatrists came into being. Hal came into my rooms in Epworth Hospital, and said ‘Sinclair, we need an Association of Psychiatrists. I think I will be president - no, we will give it to Dawson and then I will be next. You will be the first secretary’. The conversation lasted about five minutes, after which he walked away. A quiet, thoughtful man, yes, but also an active, decisive man. Within three weeks of this announcement, he had arranged a meeting in a small room in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons building. He had in his hand a list of those whom he thought should be in the inaugural Association of Psychiatrists. The names of these people now appear in brass in Maudsley House - the present home of the College. The Association was first based in Melbourne but Hal had arranged for the other states and later New Zealand to participate in the new Association. Thus it is obvious that Hal was entirely responsible for the foundation of what is now the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. Hal filled the position of president of the Association on two occasions - a unique honour. From the beginning, he was keen to obtain the Royal prefix for the Association. He did not achieve his object, but some years later through the efforts of others the title was granted to the College.

Mrs Maudsley, a Scot, was energetic, forthright and in some ways, terrifying. She had however, a wonderful heart and she and Hal were admirable partners and excellent hosts. The last time I saw Hal was in hospital when he was terminally ill. There were four or five people, including the late well-loved John F Williams, at the bedside. Also beside the bed was a bottle of Scotch. So while chatting and silently paying homage to this man nearing the end of his life, we, and he, drank Scotch. I have been told that his last days were exceedingly disturbing and painful. But he dealt with these as he did with most of the problems in his life - with guts.

Maudsley had friends in politics, and friends and admirers in medicine and in the top levels of psychiatry. He was a man with vision, resulting in a wealth of ideas, which he had the drive and ability to translate into actualities. He was a sociable man, and enjoyed his membership of the Melbourne Club enormously, becoming as did his father before him, president of the Club. Medically however, being a pioneer, he was inevitably a lonely man, but he never allowed that loneliness to interfere with his objectives, and he has left behind him an image of courage and high purpose, an example to all.