Guy Lendon was born and educated in Adelaide, served in the RAN during World War I and subsequently undertook postgraduate training in Oxford, England - first at Magdalen College, which he disliked, and later at the Radcliffe Infirmary, which he enjoyed. He was a first-class scholar and an outstanding athlete, excelling in rifle shooting, tennis and golf. He was a formidable competitor in all his fields of endeavour. He inherited from his father both a medical practice and a substantial knowledge of the health, habits and foibles of the Adelaide Establishment. His mother, of whom he was very fond, was born Lucy Isabel Rymill. The Rymill name is well known in Australian business and golfing circles and that strain no doubt contributed to the flair and aggressiveness which often characterised both Guy’s professional and athletic pursuits. While studying anaesthesia at the Radcliffe Infirmary he had graphically demonstrated, at a BMA meeting, the use of ethyl chloride by having a reluctant colleague, the late Sir Leonard Lindon (who used to recall the story), induce anaesthesia in Guy himself!

On his return to Adelaide, Guy soon made his name as a consultant physician and particularly as a clinician, teacher and medical politician at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Those were the days of ‘prima donna’ consultants rather than of team medicine. Guy’s medical erudition, his sharp mind and his dramatic or even flamboyant style made him an impressive and stimulating teacher. He proved a good and helpful friend to many of his students and juniors and he felt an intense responsibility to his hospital and to the students and patients within it. However he did not accept opposition or criticism graciously and his quick wit and sometimes acerbic repartee alienated many colleagues, some for long periods. One instance involved his own brother-in-law, Major-General Sir Samuel Burston, who received precedence in appointment to the honorary staff of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. They did not speak together for the latter half of Guy’s life!

On the other hand he had many friends, brought together by his extensive interests. He was a keen and adventurous motorist-mechanic from his early days, enjoyed tennis with a group of first-class players and was a very low handicap golfer who was captain of the Royal Adelaide Golf Club. A love of cats was a less widely known facet of his life. His daughter Elspeth, now Mrs Peter Wells, remembers when a dozen of them shared their home.

He was a popular postgraduate teacher and devoted much time and energy to the young, would-be physicians who left the armed forces at the end of World War II. Despite his insistence that probability (‘the odds’) should contribute a major part to medical diagnosis, Guy liked nothing better than to make a startingly improbable diagnosis from the foot of the bed and then, with tongue in cheek, defend it through his clinical examination and investigations. The stimulus to prove him wrong was a great incentive to the concentration of his pupils!

It was unfortunate and sad that illness in his later life, and particularly after the accidental death of his wife, led him to become a recluse. Even so he was loved by some, respected by very many and will be remembered by all who knew him.