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College Roll Bio

Markwell, Norman Walter


Qualifications
MB (1910) ChM Syd (1912) DPM Eng (1922) FRACP (1938) (Foundation)
Born
22/04/1887
Died
26/06/1977

Norman Markwell, son of Walter and Minnie Markwell of Brisbane was educated at the Brisbane Grammar School and Sydney University. After graduating he practiced at Thursday Island until 1920. He then went to the United Kingdom and undertook post-graduate studies at the Chester Mental Hospital and in London. He recommended practice in Brisbane in 1926 and introduced the first electrocardiograph machine to Brisbane. It occupied a whole room and the tracings were recorded on a glass plate 2.5 x 7 inches. He was appointed an Honorary Physician to the Brisbane Hospital. At this time he was active in producing papers for the Brisbane branch of the (then) BMA and to national BMA meetings. Many of his conclusions then are valid today.

In 1933 he stressed the importance of accurate history taking and physical examination in the diagnosis of heart disease especially angina pectoris. He pointed out that at the time the ECG was the only objective method of detecting myocardial ischaema especially transient changes during angina pectoris. Nevertheless a normal ECG can be followed shortly afterwards by a fatal eschaemic event.

Norman Markwell served as a MO to the Kennedy Regiment in Thursday Island from 1915 to1919 and in Darwin from 1940 to 1943. His sons John (Ingham) and William (Innisfail) have made important contributions to community medicine in those cities.

Author

G NEILSON

References

WALKER, A.S, Australia in the War of 1935-45, Series 5 (Medical) Vol II, Middle East and Far East , Canb, 1953, 450

Last Updated

May 30, 2018, 17:34 PM
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