Harry Wunderly was born at Camberwell, Victoria, the son of Jacques Wunderly who was of Swiss descent. Jacques died from tuberculosis when Harry was five years of age, and part of a small struggling family. He went to Wesley College, Melbourne by scholarship and later scholarships and exhibitions carried him through a distinguished medical course at the University of Melbourne. He had the misfortune to acquire pulmonary tuberculosis while a medical student and periods of severe illness and the need for long convalescence dogged the early years of his career.

He first practised as a general practitioner at Mount Barker, South Australia and later as a general physician in Adelaide, but very early concentrated his energies on the field of tuberculous diseases. In 1919 he married Alice Barker, and a long and very happy marriage ended when Alice died shortly before Harry.

He had a most distinguished medical career, and will always be remembered as the architect of the Australian national tuberculosis campaign. Other leaders such as Cotter Harvey and Hilary Roche had repeatedly called for national action, but it needed a man with Harry's particular talents of drive and tenacity, combined with a natural bent for diplomacy, to bring the plan to fruition. In Adelaide, before the War, Harry, with characteristic practicality had `estimated that in a mass survey the overall cost of a Mantoux test and a photo-fluorograph would be one shilling per head' (quoted by Cotter Harvey in `Tuberculosis as a Problem for the State', Medical Journal of Australia, 14 September, 1940)

Harry accepted the position of first Commonwealth Director of Tuberculosis in 1946. Following this a vital agreement between the Commonwealth and the states was signed in 1949. In this the Commonwealth engaged to reimburse the states for all approved capital expenditure (new clinics, chest hospitals, sanatoria etc), as well as fund a national tuberculosis campaign. A National Tuberculosis Advisory Council was set up with Harry as its first chairman. The extraordinary success of the campaign has become history, and Harry's hand can be seen throughout the course of events.

The value of survey chest x-ray examinations soon became obvious and knowledge of the efficacy of modern treatment became widespread amongst the public. There was a remarkable reduction in the death rate with the use of the new anti-tuberculous chemotherapy. Throughout the country, there was a disappearance of the waiting lists for institutional treatment, and soon the closing of sanatoria and special hospital accommodation for tuberculosis patients. Altogether it was a remarkable and exhilarating era of medical endeavour.

Well aware of the need to create more opportunities for postgraduate overseas training he made a generous gift to the young College in 1947 which enabled it to provide the Wunderly Travelling Scholarships in Thoracic Disease.

A magnificent obituary of Sir Harry Wunderly was written by his friend and colleague, Dr Ellis Abrahams, in the Medical Journal of Australia, 28 August, 1971. This can hardly be bettered and should be read by those seeking a full description of the life and career of this great Australian.