John Victor ("Jerry") Latham was born in Melbourne on 28 June 1911 and died in Sydney on 17 December 1986 suddenly. At the time of his death he was the most senior physician on the St George Hospital staff. He had been born into a talented family. One uncle, Sir John Latham, became Chief Justice of Australia while another uncle, Leslie Latham (qv 1), was an honoured physician in Melbourne and the chairman of the Victorian state council of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Jerry's father, Bertrand, joined the Commonwealth Bank in 1913 and became its chief actuary for many years until he retired.

The family moved to Sydney when he was about two years old. He had his schooling at North Sydney Boys' High School and then took his medical course at Sydney University, graduating in 1936. John had always been called "Jack" by his family and known by his colleagues as "Jerry". He was resident at the Royal North Shore Hospital for one year, Crown Street Hospital and the Childrens' Hospital for six months each. He travelled as ship's surgeon to Japan early in 1938 on the Tanda. He was very athletic at school and at University having been broad jump champion at both institutions. His athleticism showed itself in Japan where he climbed Mount Fujiyama. He returned to Sydney and married Marjorie Webb, who was a nursing sister at the Royal North Shore Hospital. Following his marriage in April 1938 he went into general practice at Sutherland. This was a short-lived venture, as in 1939 he joined the 7th Division serving five years in the Middle East and New Guinea. In the Middle East he reported a patient he suspected as having been a spy. He was later thanked by army headquarters for this observation.

He gained his MRACP in 1945 and began a consultant practice in Hurstville and Macquarie Street. He sold his general practice in Sutherland. He was the first full-time consultant physician in the St George area, holding posts at St George, Royal Prince Alfred and then Sutherland Hospital, at the same time. His early interests were industrial medicine and allergy.

He was a very competent pianist having studied this instrument since childhood. I remember hearing a Brahms piece behind my back in his home one evening, a piece which he greatly admired. I turned to thank him and was astonished to find he had played it himself and that it had not been a recording as I had first thought. He later taught his grandchildren to play the piano at the age of sixty-eight and whilst in Cairo during the war he bought a flute and mastered this instrument. Music was an abiding love. So was reading. He was extraordinarily widely read and could be controversial and provocative about many topics. He was also a generous giver of books and I have to thank him for a copy of How to read a book and Horae subsecivae one of the "world's classics" by Dr John Brown.

Jerry had a great sense of humour. He was a curious mixture of shyness and conservatism, great friendliness and even gregariousness when he was engaged in conversation. He could always be challenging. He was conservative in dress and usually wore a hat, suit and waistcoat in summer. Apart from his beloved family, he had many other interests including "gadgets", as he called them. Amongst the gadgets were computers, videos and almost anything new. At the time of his death he was busily engaged cataloguing various medical journals on his computer. He had an acute sense of fun combined with a stringent sense of morality. People found it quite impossible to tell Jerry an untruth. Patients respected and loved him and were, like the rest of us, more than a little intrigued by him. He once told me about his father's family. How people would remark as they passed the Latham home in Melbourne that they had heard laughter from the family inside. Often this was the boys reading to each other, and perhaps "role playing", passages from Dickens, especially The Pickwick Papers.

I had the benefit on one occasion of being treated by him in hospital. Whilst I lay ill for a month he would come daily for thirty minutes and sit by my bedside in discussion, give me little tasks to perform to turn my thoughts outwards. By the simplest means he created great trust. One had the added confidence of knowing that in the search for the truth he would not spare himself. He would always go the extra mile by talking to the bacteriologist or pathologist or going through an exhaustive search of literature in a difficult case. In fact he tried to teach me this art.

He declared himself not to be "religious" in a denominational sense but he occupies a special place in the hearts of his patients and his friends because he loved his neighbour as himself. He is remembered at St George Hospital for starting the library, for commencing the clinical meetings and helping to establish the clinical school, in those times in association with the University of Sydney. Another interest was the stock exchange which he at first followed with his sharp, astute mind, later watching its fortunes rise and fall with the aid of a computer. He was one of the first doctors in Sydney to possess a personal computer. He of course taught himself how to manage an early model.

Dr Ben Haneman has written, "the most violent expletive that would pass his lips was 'Oh crumpets'". He has taught many students, many doctors and has been an inspiration and mentor to many younger colleagues, including myself. He had a son, Doctor Robert Latham (qv 1), a geriatrician in Perth, who died tragically when young. He has two married daughters and is survived also by his wife Marjorie who in years gone by played her part in the then much smaller St George Hospital community. Dr JV Latham has set us a fine example in integrity, decency and altruism. He was a wonderful friend who was very patient about the shortcomings of his fellow men. "His great quality lay in making men love ascertained and recorded truth, scientific truth especially; he made his reader and hearer 'enjoy facts'", a quotation from his beloved Horae subsecivae.