'Tom' Brereton, as he was known to all, died after a brief illness. Born in Sydney, he was educated at Knox Grammar School before doing Science at Sydney University where he took an active part in sporting activities, achieving the rare distinction of an Imperial Blue in rifle shooting as well as being captain of the rifle club. He then decided to do medicine and did his residency at Sydney Hospital in 1939 before moving to Newcastle Hospital until enlistment in 1940. With Drs Roy Mills FRACP and Peter Hendry FRCPA he was posted to 2/10 Field Ambulance which later was sent with the 8th Division to Malaya. There he gained transfer to 2/4 CCS, thinking there would be more scope for medical practice. In that same unit was Carl Furner, a Foundation Fellow of the College. Soon after the brief, brutal Malayan campaign, Tom was sent to care for the prisoners on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway. There his health suffered badly and he was only six stone at liberation. Ironically for a university blue in rifle shooting, his eyesight suffered badly from malnutrition: thereafter reading and patient care became difficult, time consuming tasks.
After liberation he returned to Royal Newcastle Hospital as RMO and Medical Registrar and in 1948, gained his Membership Diploma. He then went to the UK for further medical training. In 1953 he entered private practice in Newcastle and soon had honorary appointments at the Royal Newcastle and at the Mater Misericordiae Hospitals which he retained with much distinction until his retirement from them in 1978; he continued consulting practice until 1982.
Tom was a quiet man who cared for his patients and their welfare; his forte was the bedside rather than the committee room. Having gained his confidence, you learnt that he had a wry sense of humour. Outside medicine, his loves were his wife, family and home, swimming daily in Merewether baths and working on a farm property. I knew him for 35 years but I never heard him once refer to the war which devastated his life. A man of great principles, his life was summed up by one of the privates who served under him in the war: 'He'll go up there, he was a good man.'