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College Roll Bio
Greenaway,
Sir
Thomas Moore
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Qualifications
Kt (1968) MB ChM Syd (1925) MRCP (1934) FRACP (1938) FRCP (1951) PRACP (1960-62)
Born
01/06/1902
Died
30/10/1980
Sir Thomas Greenaway's biographer is found with a difficult task in recording a lifetime of achievement and distinction without losing sight of the personality and character of the essential TMG, the physician who was one of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's proudest and most revered sons. He was educated at North Sydney Boys High School, gained his leaving certificate at the age of fifteen, and joined the AIF a year later after borrowing a cousin's birth certificate in order to meet the age requirement for military service. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney in 1925 and was a resident medical officer at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
His career saw changes in the nature of his own practice, and in the practice of medicine in Australia - changes which he influenced. He began his medical life in general practice, and later became a foundation Fellow to the RACP, a member of its board of censors, its censor in chief, one of its councillors and its president. In 1928 he was appointed to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as a clinical assistant in medicine; he later became one of its most respected senior physicians and a member of its Board of Directors, and in 1968 he was knighted in recognition of his services to medicine and to medical education. He married Lavinia Figtree, daughter of one of the medical practitioners in the district where he worked, and they had three children. He left general practice in 1934, travelled to London for further training, gained his MRCP and returned to commence practice as a consultant physician in Macquarie Street. During the second world war he was required to remain at the RPAH, and after 1946 he helped to shape the destiny of its department of medicine.
TMG became one of Sydney's most successful physicians and one of Prince Alfred's most colourful and influential. He recognised the place of specialty units in the ultimate scheme of things, and encouraged their development; but he remained the quintessential generalist. He was accredited by experience, wisdom and wide reading to deal with the whole spectrum of internal medicine; undergraduate students and registrars in training listened attentively while he discussed topics ranging from thyrotoxicosis to PNH. He was a gifted teacher and a superb clinician. Although his first loyalty lay with the RPAH, ha also held consultant appointments at Marrickville, Ryde and St George Hospitals, and as a mark of honour was appointed as consultant to Prince Henry Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of New South Wales. He was unselfish with his time and his energy and served on the council of the BMA and on the Medical Board of New South Wales. He was a tutor in medicine and later a lecturer in clinical medicine at the University of Sydney, and a regular examiner in clinical medicine.
His enjoyment of medicine was obvious, his commitment absolute. Those who attended his ward rounds can recall clearly his ready smile and the twinkle in his eyes, his pleasure when others were able to match his pace, his impatience if the discussion threatened to become too earnest, too detailed or irrelevant. He enjoyed some gentle gamesmanship to keep his resident staff on its collective toes, sometimes applying a misleading or ambiguous diagnostic label to a patient referred for admission from his rooms. He had a genuine and a generous interest in the welfare of his trainees, many of whom remember with gratitude his words of advice or his offer to smooth their way with a telephone call or a letter of introduction.
TMG was renowned for his punctuality at seminars and grand rounds, and it was rumoured that consultations would be adjourned - no matter how famous or exalted the patient - to allow ample time for his trip from Macquarie Street to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He had facilities for estimating the BMR at his consulting rooms and he was a keen user of the urinary Sulkowich reagent. Whatever the limitations of these diagnostic aids, it is unlikely that many cases of thyroid dysfunction escaped detection, or that the need to estimate the serum calcium was often overlooked.
His interests and talents were not confined to the practice of medicine. This was made clear in the tribute paid at his memorial service by his friend and colleague, Dr Geoffrey McDonald, who recalled TMG's love of literature and his willingness to wager (successfully) on the origins of quotations from sources which included the Bible, Shakespeare and foreign languages. It was a cruel blow that someone so quick in mind and movement should have been stricken with Parkinson's disease. His courage during his long illness was truly inspiring; and although we witnessed the gradual loss of his mobility and the weakening of his voice, the images which we retain of this stylish physician are those of his youthful good looks, his eloquence, the quickness of his smile and of his repartee, and his wholehearted fascination with the practice of medicine. He is survived by his daughters, Judith and Patricia, and by his son John, a Fellow of the College and the father of two more Fellows in training, Timothy and Sally.
Author
JE HASSALL
References
Munk's Roll
,
VII
, 227-8;
Med J Aust
, 1981,
1
, 545.
Last Updated
May 30, 2018, 17:35 PM
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