Winston Rickards, a founder of child psychiatry in Victoria, has died of complications from pneumonia in Royal Melbourne Hospital, aged 87.

Driven by a pioneering spirit and lifelong love of children, he helped to found Australia's main psychiatric body, now the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and in the 1960s was a guiding figure in creating its child psychiatry section.

As the founding director of the Royal Children's Hospital department of child psychiatry and behavioural sciences, for almost 30 years he nurtured generations of Victorian child psychiatrists. His efforts to see the world through the eyes of children drew him into a world of joy, playfulness, sadness, loneliness, fear and, at times, great disturbance. In 2005, he was made a member of the Order of Australia.

The son of Harry Rickards and Margaret (nee Walker), and the younger brother of Field, he gained an inkling of where life might take him when he was a small boy. Bedridden in hospital in 1932, he was inspired by the doctor's abilities to heal him and resolved to acquire those abilities himself.

At Wesley College, Winston was an all-rounder — a scholar and sportsman. He was to stay that way for the rest of his life.

Determined to pursue his childhood dream, he studied medicine at Melbourne University, and retained a lifelong relationship with Queens College. He took postgraduate studies in psychology at the University, along with medicine and psychiatry at various hospitals, including the Royal Children's. His experiences there heightened his sensitivity to the needs of children.

In 1950, he earned a doctor of medicine and obtained various professional diplomas. Eager to learn more and armed with a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, he set off for the US and Britain in 1951 and found himself in a wave of profound intellectual change in a world preoccupied with rebuilding and renewal after World War II.

Compared with previous decades in which children's emotional needs were barely recognised, the new thinking seemed radical. The importance of children's relationships within their families and broader society, now taken for granted, was beginning to be understood.

Winston flourished. He trained at the Harvard Medical School, and at various institutions in London; Anna Freud, John Bowlby, and Donald Winnicott became mentors. He worked with physically and mentally disabled people in London's deprived East End. The experiences inspired him to take Australian child psychiatry in new directions.

After his return to Melbourne in 1955, the Royal Children's Hospital upgraded its psychiatric clinic to the status of department and Winston was made director, a position he held until 1983. The department achieved international stature under his leadership.

He introduced group psychotherapy to the department and took a broad, multidisciplinary approach, nurturing professionals from diverse fields such as pathology and audiology. The training program he set up for child psychiatrists was the only one in Victoria until the early 1980s.

At Melbourne University, Winston lectured and, examined in medicine and other fields for 30 years. He supported multi-disciplinary research and supervised the first Victorian doctorate in child psychiatry.

He retired in 1985 but did not slow down; he helped to set up local and national associations advocating for children's mental health and continued a long relationship with the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions. He was patron of its conference in 2007.

"If you can help one child, you can change the earth," he told his own children.

His colleagues remember him as a passionate advocate of children's rights; one described his manner with children as "enchanting". His commitment to meeting the needs of children was unyielding. For this, he sometimes came into conflict with hospital authorities and colleagues.

"There would be very few professionals who have worked with children in Melbourne, and even nationally, until relatively recently who would not have been influenced by his beliefs or principles, even if only to oppose or compare with his uncompromising position at times," said Paul Coombe, a child psychiatrist he trained.

Winston's commitment to his patients often continued once treatment was complete: he followed them in their adult lives, where many had successfully raised families and had blossoming careers.

Cricket was a passion. He was vice-president of the Melbourne University Cricket Club for more than 30 years. "It is my tranquilliser, antidepressant, sedative, individual therapy and group therapy," he would joke.

He was known for his quirky, enigmatic sense of humour.

In the final months of his life, he faced increasing physical disability, deafness and blindness with great courage. He saw it in terms of cricket. "No Australian cricketer likes being 87, 13 off the 100," he joked to family. "You get off it as quickly as you can."

He is survived by his wife, Anne; son, Tom; and daughters, Jane and Katrina.