Eugene McLaughlin was born in Millicent, South Australia. He received his secondary education at the Christian Brothers’ College, Adelaide, and graduated MB BS at the University of Adelaide in 1922. After a year as resident medical officer at the Adelaide Hospital he set about a systematic plan of study and effort that produced the man he was - always the physician, thorough, sympathetic and knowledgeable. Although he had no formal training in pathology and was practically entirely self taught, he ended as a very sound haematologist and histopathologist.

In the early years of private practice he concentrated on haematology and biochemistry. With the arrival of Michael Gribble from England as a partner, they expanded in a few short years to provide a complete medical pathology service. Eugene McLaughlin, in planning his medical career, was much influenced by the late Sir Trent Champion de Crespigny. Those of us who remember Sir Trent realise the pinnacle of excellence aimed at, and the emphasis he gave to the thorough knowledge of pathology as the basis of good medicine. McLaughlin certainly achieved the status of a great pathologist and withal remained always the kindly physician.

He sailed for England in 1924, and was at first resident at the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases. From there he proceeded in 1925 to the National Hospital for Diseases of the Heart, under the guidance of Sir John Parkinson. He acquired his MRCP diploma in 1927, and returned to Adelaide. He was appointed director of the department of pathology and bacteriology of the Adelaide Hospital, a position he filled for five years. In 1938 he was appointed assistant physician at the RAH and was made a foundation Fellow of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians. In 1941 he was appointed a senior physician and he held this position until his retirement in 1957. He was honorary consultant pathologist to the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, and consultant physician to the sterility clinic.

In endeavouring to summarise the more personal side of Eugene McLaughlin, one is confronted with an analysis of a most complex personality. By many of us, his friends of many years, he was held in affectionate regard and appreciated; by others, less privileged, he was not always understood. Eugene McLaughlin was always in a hurry and yet his favourite phrase if you didn’t immediately agree wholeheartedly with him was, ‘Wait awhile, now wait awhile’. He could be irascible and occasionally even angry. The more excited he became the louder and faster he talked, particularly on the telephone.

McLaughlin was a fully educated man in the true sense. His knowledge of history was profound; literature, art and theatre were studied and understood in the thorough fashion that was part of this person, who knew no half measures. Fundamentally, he was an extremely humble and sensitive person, with a deep love of all things beautiful. In interior decoration he had an impeccable colour sense; in art, he had an especial love of old prints. Formal garden design was one of his main hobbies, and apart from the beautiful garden at his late home, many of his friends can thank him for the help he gave them. He indeed left memorials of beauty.