Leslie Cowlishaw began collecting books when a schoolboy. He was born in Sydney, and attended Sydney Grammar School and the University of Sydney. At school he did not excel as a scholar, but was a first-grade cricket player. Both book-collecting and love for cricket were lifelong. His interest in and knowledge of the classics and literature were no doubt fostered by three world tours made at the age of ten years, after matriculation from school, and after graduation from university in 1906. It was during the 1906 visit that he first began to collect works on medical history.

After his return to Australia Dr Cowlishaw practised medicine in Cooma where he married Miss Jessie Garnock in 1909. He volunteered for active service in 1914. During the war he contracted scarlet fever and was evacuated for a time to England where he met Sir William Osler. Sir William encouraged the `bibliophile from the bush' in his book-collecting and gave him a number of books. After his demobilisation in 1918 he practised in the suburbs north of Sydney, firstly at Hornsby, and then at Lindfield where he remained until his death.

He worked to form a medical history and literature section of the New South Wales branch of the British Medical Association (1925) and a similar section of the Australasian Medical Congress (1929). From 1931 he delivered each year to final year students at the University of Sydney a series of twelve lectures on medical history.

In 1938 The Royal Australasian College of Physicians was formed; a year later Leslie Cowlishaw was admitted to membership by examination. The library, a small lending library mainly of periodicals, was established in 1940 and Leslie Cowlishaw accepted the office of honorary librarian.

Unfortunately, his term as honorary librarian was all too brief for he died on 11 December 1943. His library, which numbered about two thousand items, was offered for sale by his trustees. By his will the College of Physicians had the first refusal. Cowlishaw's belief that the College would buy the collection was certain enough for him to design its council room shelving to house the books. The offer was declined, the main reason being the lack of money in the young College. The events which followed are well recorded by Professor KF Russell: `At this particular time the present writer was on leave in Sydney from the Army and hearing that the trustees were prepared to hold it for any other institution, asked them if they would reserve it while he contacted the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. It so happened that his letter reached the College at the same time that Mr Gordon Wheeler, the then secretary of the College, was also on leave from the Army. He got in touch with Sir Alan Newton (president) ... and arrangements for the purchase of the library were immediately made.

It is perhaps ironical that in 1958 the executive committee of the College of Physicians accepted a proposal that its library's collection of periodicals be disposed of and that the library instead specialise in the history of medicine. A planned programme of acquisitions and the generosity of benefactors, particularly Sir Edward Ford, have facilitated the development of an historical medical library that Leslie Cowlishaw would have certainly approved.