William 'Bill' Burke was born in Hamilton, Newcastle NSW, son of Thomas 'Tom' Burke, a foundation employee of BHP Newcastle when it opened in 1915. His mother, Linda Harvey, was of Scottish Presbyterian descent, from Dunedin, New Zealand. She came to Newcastle to accompany her sister, Lydia, who was to marry a sailor. Lydia died in 1919, during the flu epidemic and Linda stayed in the area as a nurse at Kurri Hospital, where she met Bill's father, Tom Burke, and they married in February 1922. Dr LT Allsop, the local GP, father of Bill's colleague Dr John Allsop, gave Linda away. By coincidence, it was also Dr LT Allsop, then a GP in Hamilton, Newcastle, who sponsored Linda mother to come to Australia.
Bill was the eldest child and he had three siblings; a younger brother, Tony, who died at the age of 5 from diphtheria, and two sisters, Geraldine Jordan and Patricia McGuigan. His physical appearance was that of a relatively short man, who had great enthusiasm for all aspects of life, including his work, family and social activities.
He married Joan Kennedy on Bastille Day in London, in 1951. She was a nurse, initially at St Vincent's Hospital, and subsequently followed Bill to London, where he was doing his post-graduate studies in neurology. They had eight children.
His initial education was at the Hamilton Marist Brothers College. He soon showed evidence of his prodigious intellect by winning the Bishop of Maitland Bursary, which provided funding for him to complete his secondary schooling at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, Sydney. He was Dux of the college in 1940. Throughout his entire life, for the next 54 years, he maintained a very close relationship with that college, as all his sons were educated there. Initially, he was undecided whether to do medicine or law. However, family influences guided him into medicine, and he entered his first year of medicine at Sydney University in 1941. He entered the Clinical School at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, in 1943, and graduated with Second Class Honours from Sydney University in 1946. After graduation, he was a resident medical officer at St Vincent's and was Deputy Medical Superintendent in 1949, during which time he passed the MRACP. It would appear he was the youngest person to pass that examination and the Chief Censor of the College at the time told him that although he had passed the examination, he was far too young to call himself a consultant physician. Sir Douglas Miller, who was pioneering neurosurgery at the time in Sydney, encouraged Bill to go do London to study neurology.
He left Australian shores in 1950, on the Empire Star as the ship's doctor. Dr Frank Byron, a pathologist at St Vincent's Hospital at the time, knew Russell (later Lord) Brain from his days at the London Hospital and contacted Russell Brain, and through that connection, Bill obtained a position as House Physician at Maida Vale Hospital in June 1950. He obtained his MRCP in December 1950, and was then appointed Senior House Physician at The National Hospital, Queen Square in 1951, where he worked with the great names of neurology, Sir Charles Symonds, Sir Francis Walsh, Dr Jack Elkington and Macdonald Critchley. These great teachers had a profound influence on his future medical career and philosophy.
Bill returned to Sydney 1952, and with the support of Douglas Miller, obtained an appointment as Honorary Assistant Neurologist in the Neurosurgical Department at St Vincent's Hospital. He laid the foundation for the Department of Neurology on sound clinical skills and teaching. A formal bedded neurological service did not occur, however, until 1962. He was also appointed as Honorary Neurologist at The Mater Hospital, North Sydney and Lewisham Hospital. He was always deeply committed to the principles of the various religious orders of nuns who ran these hospitals, because he had very strong religious beliefs, and was a devoutly religious man. He became a member of the Australian Association of Neurologists in 1954, and subsequently a member of council and treasurer of that Organisation.
He had a great love for clinical teaching throughout his entire career as a neurologist. Students at the University of Sydney during the 1950s and 1960s, will remember his lectures on neuroanatomy and clinical neurology. I remember clearly, as his junior resident medical officer at St Vincent's Hospital in 1961, and subsequently as his registrar, how he brought patients in his own car to the University of Sydney and demonstrated their clinical signs to the entire 4th year medical class. Similarly, students and post-graduates would flock to his ward rounds and teaching sessions, to hear him unravel the difficult neurological problems, and make neurology appear relatively straightforward. He would also have his students to a party at his home at the end of each year, and put on a great evening for them. Throughout his career at St Vincent's Hospital, he continued to take both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Bill had a close relationship with other College Fellows, particularly fellow neurologists, Dr John Allsop and Dr George Selby (qv) who graduated in the same year as Bill. He also worked closely with the neurosurgeons Sir Douglas Miller, Dr Kevin Bleasel and Dr Tom Connelley of the Department of Neurosurgery at St Vincent's Hospital. In particular, his association and friendship with Dr Kevin Bleasel, brought the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery together, thus establishing a strong collaboration which has continued to the present day. He was at the forefront in encouraging the Sisters of Charity and the Board of St Vincent's Hospital to install computerised axial tomography (CAT) scanning at St Vincent's Private Hospital.
Bill was always willing to be available for patients at any particular time of the day and night and his visiting patients in their home or nursing home, is well recorded Not only was he committed to the care of his patients, but was also involved in the administration of these hospitals, being Chairman of the Division of Medicine, Chairman of the Medical Board and on the Advisory Board of St Vincent's Hospital, and he held similar positions at both Lewisham and The Mater Hospitals. For all the rewards and recognition that he received throughout his career, none approached the significance of one of the last that was bestowed upon him; that of naming the William J G Burke Department of Neurology at St Vincent's Hospital.
Bill was a man of many gifts, with a vibrant personality, who firmly believed that everyone was trustworthy, genuine in everything they did and, as such, he had a marvellous quality of openness. Everybody loved and respected him. He enjoyed all aspects of life to the full and was at ease in the company of people from all walks of life. He did have fairly fixed ideas on politics and medicine, and was very disappointed to see the Honorary system of practice at public hospitals disappear. One of his favourite quotes was, 'beware the man who accepts the King's shilling'.
He was a devoted family man, deeply religious, with a strong devotion to St Luke, Patron Saint of Physicians. His other great interest was horse racing and he was never one to forget the favour that St Luke did for him, by enabling him to get through medicine, and so, paid homage to his patron saint when, in partnership with three other prominent Sydney medical racing identities, Dr Ray Pearce, Dr Keith Mallett and Dr Joe Wadsworth, raced a horse called Gentle Luke. This horse did have some limited success in the early stages, but he had other racehorses, one called Octet, after his eight children. And although his association with the racing fraternity continued, he was not involved in owning other horses. Bill always appreciated the good things in life and strived to share them with others.
Bill did not publish a lot of work, although the volume of patients he saw would have been sufficient for any neurology textbook. He presented work quite frequently at the Australian Association of Neurologists meetings, culminating in 1980, with the E Graeme Robertson Memorial Lecture a clinical review of myaesthenia gravis, comprising an account of 60 cases he had managed throughout his career.
He died on 7 September 1994, in the Sacred Heart Hospice, Darlinghurst, three months after suffering from an acute stroke. His wife Joan, his eight children and 16 grandchildren survived him.