Vin Bristow was a happy, jocular person who shined as a raconteur. He had a phenomenal memory. He was generous, unselfish, fair-minded, modest, and was a master of understatement. Sometimes he would couch description of a serious situation in comical terms as if to disguise his actual sensitivity to it. He established singular rapport with his patients and was always considerate of them and of those with whom he worked. Miss Lorraine Crouch was his able secretary continually for thirty-two years. He was my respected mentor at the Alfred Hospital. He was one of the kindest most skilled physicians I have known. In a few pungent phrases he could give a clear expression to a shrewd judgement. He married Nancy Oldfield in June 1946. Theirs was a happy marriage. The family meant everything to him. Nan and the children tell of his love, support and understanding. Michael is a businessman. 'Tink' is a solicitor. Andrew is a barrister. Social occasions at his home were happy affairs, with Nan and Vin at their brightest. His Moonee Valley membership had been inherited from his father. He had great pleasure from relaxing at the family home at Portsea.

Vin's father John Bristow was born in Birmingham, England and practised as a pharmacist in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. His mother, Mary Magdelen Bristow (née Agnew) was from a farming family and was born near Creswick. Vin was the elder of three sons. His two brothers qualified in pharmacy. His elder brother Herbert practised as a pharmacist. Vin was educated at St Joseph's Christian Brothers' College, North Melbourne from 1924 to 1929 but finished his schooling at St Kevin's College, then in East Melbourne, matriculating in 1931. He had considered doing an engineering course but his father persuaded him to do medicine. He graduated from the Melbourne University Medical School in December 1938. During his course he was a prosector in anatomy. In the social field he resurrected the Melbourne University Ice-skating Club. He spent at least six years with the Melbourne University Regiment and believed that the war was coming. He was ROM St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne in 1939. For the first half of 1940 he was MO AMC at various camps near Melbourne. For the rest of that year he was RMO at the Austin Hospital, Melbourne which was where he met Nan.

Appointment to a commission in 2nd AIF came on 1 February 1941. He served with the 1st Australian Independent Company in New Ireland, based at Kavieng from July 1941. He was mentioned in dispatches for this particular service with Lark Force. In January 1942 the Japanese landed such a vastly superior force that the small Australian group made tactical retreat. He was captured at sea by the Japanese on 31 January 1942. He was interned for some months at Rabaul, then at Zentsuji Camp on Shikoku Island. He was then at Moji where there were very sick internees. The Japanese withheld Suphadiazine until forty-three per cent of the internees died in the first month. No deaths occurred after Suphadiazine was made available. Father Victor Turner, then Army Chaplain, said Vin gave the greatest moral support to those in need. He was subsequently interned at Hakodate. He arrived back in Australia in October 1945 weighing just 45kg. Many years later when attending a conference in Japan which he had expected to enjoy, he suffered unpleasant flashbacks.

In June 1946 he became superintendent at the Austin Hospital and held that post until 1953. During that time he suffered an isolated paralysis of the deltoid regarded as due to poliomyelitis contracted from a hospital inmate. Vin used to suffer hayfever, which alerted him to the need for allergists. He worked as clinical assistant to Drs Gerald Doyle (qv 1) at St Vincent's and Russell Donald at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for several years. He entered private practice in 1953, first sharing the rooms of Sir Harold Gengoult Smith, 110 Collins Street. Later that year he shared rooms at 45 Spring Street with Dr Gerald Doyle. In 1954 he was appointed as the first allergist to the Eye and Ear Hospital and he bought Dr Gerald Doyle's practice. In 1955 he succeeded Dr Charles Sutherland as physician in charge of the allergy clinic at the Alfred Hospital, which post he held until retirement in 1974. Because of his skill and amiability he was very popular with a large outpatient following. When Chairman of Staff in 1968 the first heart transplant at the Alfred Hospital was carried out. He finally took rooms at 20 Collins Street in 1967, at which address he practised until his death. He was partnered by Dr Nicholas Siemensma from 1983 to 1986.

Vin was an original member of the board which set up The Asthma Foundation of Victoria in 1963 and played an active and continuing role in the Foundation until his death. He was medical vice-president from 1974 to 1984, and a delegate to the Federal Council of Asthma Foundations in Australia on several occasions. Professionally he did all that he could to establish allergy as a legitimate specialty. He was a member of the Australian Society of Allergists which was formed in 1935. That evolved into the Australian College of Allergy. He was secretary and president at times to both bodies. At a stage when there was an awkward relationship with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, primarily because many members of the ACA were not fellows of the RACP, which raised questions of standards and adequacy of training programs, Vin played an important role mediating with the RACP, putting the ACA's case in proportion as a matter of evolution. Professor Bryan Hudson stated to me that he had wise counsel from Vin at the time and that those who espouse the cause of allergy owe a lot to him. After Vin's death the ACA finally fused with the Clinical Immunology Group of the ASI to become the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy. He began to tire in the last couple of years. He had been advised to have a hip replacement. Coronary insufficiency supervened. He died following by-pass surgery aimed at relieving his condition.