Alan Canny began his medical career at the University of Sydney after brilliant success in the leaving certificate examination of 1920 in which he obtained first-class honours in physics, chemistry and mathematics and was first in the State in physics and chemistry. He graduated in science in 1924 with first-class honours in physiology, and in medicine in 1927 with first place and the University Medal.

From 1928 to 1930 he held a Rockefeller travelling scholarship, and then returned to the University of Sydney as demonstrator in physiology. His lectures on the physiology of the nervous system revealed his medical erudition and his mastery of the English language. In anatomical pathology and clinical pathology he found his true interests and he held appointments in the department of medicine and subsequently in the department of pathology, where he was senior lecturer from 1936 to 1941. At the University and later at the Sydney Hospital as senior pathologist, he became recognised as an outstanding anatomical pathologist.

On the departure of John Eccles from the Kanematsu Memorial Institute, Alan Canny became the acting director and held that position from 1944 to 1946 when he resigned because of a proposal that the research activities of the Institute be curtailed.

At this time, the University of Queensland decided to establish a full-time chair of pathology in the department which had been founded by the late JV Duhig as honorary professor. Alan Canny sought and obtained the appointment, thus becoming the first full-time professor, and continued in this post from December 1946 until his death in September 1963.

The University department was quite separate from the department of pathology of the teaching hospital and Alan Canny sought to amend the situation with little success. He was therefore deprived of the opportunity to develop his interest in anatomical pathology and clinical pathology as he would have wished. He was not attracted to the alternative of experimental pathology with its emphasis on animal experimentation, and henceforth devoted himself to administration, to teaching and to furthering the professional and research activities of the members of his staff.

He contributed to the post-war planning of the faculty of medicine in Queensland, presenting his advocacy objectively but in forceful and succinct style. But if the weight of his arguments was not appreciated a combative trait would come to light.

The teaching staff was small by comparison with other universities and Alan Canny was called on to shoulder a heavy teaching burden. For him, pathology was the basis and heart of clinical medicine. He regarded the formal lecture as an outmoded form of instruction and, instead, students were provided with well-documented macroscopic and microscopic material supplemented by individual tutorial assistance. He favoured teaching clinicopathological seminars which were based on clinical reports culled from the literature or from departmental files.

To his staff Alan Canny was a friend and a tower of strength. His approach to histopathological diagnosis, his inflexible honesty, his ability to speak with authority, yet with humility, and his unfailing old-world courtesy were an example for younger men to follow. He took pleasure in the progress and success of his staff, and with no trace of jealousy in his nature he would speak in the warmest terms of those who had won his esteem. It was from the efforts of such men that great medical schools were built.

Alan Canny was well-read, particularly in historical literature, and he delighted in reading a good novel or historical essay. He had a marvellous capacity for reading rapidly yet comprehending clearly. His wife Dorothy (Sully), whom he married in 1938, survived him. They had one son and three daughters.