Puflett was always known as “Bob”. At his funeral warm addresses by his children epitomized the characteristics which so many people recognised: “Dad had a wonderful, fulfilled life. We are grateful and so was he. We will always think of him as a force in our lives”; “a man of integrity, clear about his own values and intolerant of those of what he perceived to be a lax society”; “outspoken, dogmatic, judgemental”; a paradoxical mix of frugality and generosity. Bob would cite two periods of his life which had a major influence on how he lived. The first of these was when he was ages about 15 years when his family’s financial security was seriously adversely affected by the economic depression of the times. They lived close to Circular Quay and Bob would recall that his father would require him to walk to the University of Sydney, when he became a medical student, to save the penny tram fare! The second most influential period was the year after World War II, when he was pursuing post-graduate training in Sydney and London, to attain his qualifications as a specialist physician. He would say later that this was “the hardest year of his life”. Note that this was against the background of his having been a prisoner of war under the Japanese for over three years, about which period he was typically reticent saying that other men had suffered real hardships, compared to himself.

Both his father and he were choristers at St Andrew’s Cathedral (in Sydney) and Bob attended St Andrews school until the age of 14 when he gained the Church Primary Scholarship to go to Sydney Church of England Grammar School (“Shore”). The chorister background was reflected in a fine tenor voice and a natural gift for harmonizing. Perhaps an outcome of his early training, his voice displayed a quality of easy resonance. Those who attended his tutorials to undergraduates would comment on the clarity of his diction. He was also a good cellist, and said to his family in later years that he had needed to choose between a career in music or medicine.

At Shore and later at the University of Sydney he was an outstanding all-round sportsman, representing his school in boxing, swimming, rugby and athletic track events, and gaining University Blues in boxing and in swimming. His physical build in later years was kindly described as “robust”, with no hint of his athletic past, apart from his retention of a slight gait and vigorous movement. Bob was an undergraduate student of the Clinical School of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital of Sydney and on graduation in 1939 was appointed to St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, for his junior resident years. At this time he was attracted to clinical pathology as a career choice. In 1941 he volunteered for the AIF and was posted to the 2/10 AGH as a pathologist with the rank of Captain. The entry concerning him, written by the then College Librarian, Miss Brenda Heagney, in the RACP publication, The Long Days of Slavery in 1996 states:

“His unit’s original posting was to Malacca, then Singapore. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942, he was sent as the only medical officer with a party to of infantrymen and engineers at a working camp on the island called Pulan Balkang Mali, maintaining a petrol and oil installation for the Japanese air force. There followed periods at Woodlands, Changi, Krangi and Happy Valley. In Changi he was in charge of the cookhouses, where he found that a mixture of rice ground into Soya beans made an acceptable gruel.”

In August 1946, restored to full vigour, he commenced a six month appointment to Sydney Hospital, as a Senior Resident MO, of several such appointments to provide ex-service doctors with an opportunity to resume familiarity with civilian teaching hospital medical training patterns. Bob applied himself enthusiastically and quickly replaced earlier thoughts of further training in clinical pathology by a determination to be a consultant physician. He took the MRACP in 1947 and then worked his passage to the United Kingdom as a MO on a Norwegian cargo ship. He stayed at London House while undertaking post-graduate study and took the MRACP in 1948.

In 1950 he married Lorna Gibson, who at that time had been a medical Librarian at Sydney Hospital from 1947. They lived in Roseville on Sydney’s North Shore until 1963 and thereafter at nearby Gordon their family growing to three daughters and a son.

In 1953 he was appointed as an assistant physician to the Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney, then in its earliest years as a teaching hospital, and was late a consultant physician. He had appointments as a consultant physician to Hornsby Hospital and to the Kuring-gai Community Hospital. He was a visiting specialist to the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord. With his recognised enthusiasm for sport it was appropriate that he was the inaugural president of the Australian Federation of Sports Medicine.

Bob had a busy consulting practice in Macquarie Street, Sydney. His secretary knew to present him with freshly brewed coffee, almost continuously available throughout the day. He had a determination to use all available developments of modern technology to facilitate his insatiable quest for new information. His assiduous devouring of medical journals intruded on his life at home, so that much of the early upbringing of his children was necessarily undertaken by Lorna. Bob continued attending regularly his Macquarie St rooms until12 months before his death, even though failing eyesight required him to be driven there by Lorna for the last three years. In his last illness, he was nursed lovingly at home by Lorna and remained conscious to his last day.

Bob’s sister Delmont Pulfett, AM MB BS Syd (1945) MRCOG (1952) FRACOG (1975) has had a distinguished career in Sydney as a consultant gynaecologist, with appointments to Rachael Forster Hospital, The Woman’s Hospital and St Margaret’s Hospital.