In July 1938 the 27 year-old Sydney Sunderland was appointed Professor of Anatomy in his alma mater, the University of Melbourne. Born in Brisbane, the only surviving child of journalist and football administrator Harry Sunderland and his wife Annie (née Smith), .he was Dux of Brisbane High School and completed first year science at the University of Queensland. At that time there was no medical school in Brisbane, so he enrolled in the medical faculty at the University of Melbourne. He had graduated as ‘top’ student in Medicine at the end of 1935, and was then immediately appointed Senior Lecturer in Anatomy, Assistant Neurologist in Leonard Cox’s (qv2) neurological clinic at the Alfred Hospital, and Assistant to the eminent surgeon, Hugh Trumble, who specialised in neurosurgery in the same hospital. At the time of accepting the Melbourne University chair of anatomy Sunderland was on leave at Oxford working in Le Gros Clark’s Department on connections of the cerebral cortex. Frederic Wood Jones, FRS, who had just vacated the chair to which Sunderland was appointed, had arranged this exciting appointment at Oxford, and, along with Cox and Trumble, promoted the appointment of Sunderland as his successor. These three were to remain Sydney Sunderland’s friends, and they greatly influenced his subsequent career.

Before returning to Melbourne late in 1939, Sunderland spent three months in the laboratory of Wilder Penfield (FRS, OM, Nobel Laureate) in the Montreal Neurological Institute. Penfield’s electrophysiological studies of the human sensorimotor cortex exploited the fact that cerebral surgery at that time was done using only local anaesthesia in the conscious, cooperative patient. Sunderland was deeply impressed by these clinical experimental studies, which were not only of immediate and lasting value to the patient, but also gave a new insight into the operations of the cerebral cortex. Thus, very early in his career he participated in some of the best experimental neurology of the 20th century (Penfield and Le Gros Clark), and also had the unique experience of working closely with Wood Jones, one of the outstanding, if controversial, observational biologists of his generation.

Once back in Melbourne, Sydney Sunderland’s commitments were dictated by the exigencies of war. Almost single-handed, as Professor of Anatomy he had to teach medical students, which he did with panache. He was also made responsible for a Peripheral Nerve Injuries Unit at the 115 AGH Heidelberg, Victoria. All Australian servicemen with chronic nerve injuries were sent to this unit for treatment. Sunderland’s experience in this unit over the next five years was to shape the whole of his subsequent research career, which was largely focussed on the organisation of human peripheral nerves, their regenerative response to injury, and the efficacy of surgical repair. A unique feature of this research was that Sunderland was able to personally follow the functional recovery, if any, in more than 350 patients over a period of ten years. This amazingly successful follow-up in the post-war period in no small measure depended on the friendship and mutual respect of Sunderland and these patients, many of whom would repeatedly travel long distances to be reviewed. These studies were published in more than 80 papers in the period 1945-1965, culminating in the encyclopaedic monograph, Nerves and Nerve Injuries (Livingstone,1968).

Sunderland’s systematic studies provided the framework for rapid advances in the microsurgery of injured peripheral nerves. The importance of his systematic studies was duly recognised internationally. He was duly lionised, being invited to lecture at more than 50 international symposia, giving the Founders Lecture of the American Society for the Surgery of the Hand (1979), and being cited as a ‘Pioneer in the Field of Hand Surgery’ (Tokyo, 1976). In 1979 the international Sunderland Society was set up to promote the research of peripheral nerve injuries and their repair: Sir Sydney was guest of honour at the 13 annual meetings in North America and Europe prior to his death. Lady Sunderland accompanied him to all of these diverse meetings, often four to six in the year, which he continued to attend into his eighties.

Sydney Sunderland was an excellent and enthusiastic undergraduate lecturer. In 1953 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Melbourne, a position which he held until 1971. He resigned as Professor of Anatomy in 1961 to become Professor of Experimental Neurology, and retired from this chair in 1975, but continued working in the Department of Anatomy as Emeritus Professor until 1993.

During his 18 years as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Melbourne, Australian universities changed profoundly for the better. This upheaval resulted from the acceptance by the Federal Government of many of the recommendations of the Australian Universities Commission, of which Sunderland was a leading and the longest serving member. As a result, 12 new universities and six new medical schools were created in the 1960s and 1970s. In the University of Melbourne, Sunderland was instrumental in expanding the Medical School from six to 24 professors, mainly in the clinical departments, and with the building of teaching/research Departments both on the University campus, and in the affiliated teaching hospitals. This included the building of a new medical library, and the incorporation of the Austin Hospital as an important teaching hospital. In recognition of Sunderland’s contribution to these important developments in Australian Universities, and especially to the transformation of medical education and research, he was created a Knight Bachelor in 1971.

Sunderland’s public services were not confined to the developing universities. He was a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a longtime member of the National Health and Medical Research Council and its committees, chairman or member of committees set up by the Australian Department of External Affairs, the Australian Atomic Energy Commission and other Federal departments. He also served on numerous committees established by the Victorian State Government.

Sydney Sunderland was an attractive, generous man, shrewd in judging others, who retained an enthusiasm for neurological science throughout his career, and who firmly believed that good medical practice stems from good medical education. He was devoid of any self-promotion, and distanced himself from colleagues with this propensity. Sunderland dedicated all his monographs to his wife Nina Gwendoline Sunderland, a lawyer. After completing her articles in Melbourne, Lady Sunderland committed much of her time to helping in the preparation of papers and monographs for publication, and to accompanying Sir Sydney to virtually all of the meetings in which he participated.

Sir Sydney Sunderland died on 27 August 1993, in his 83rd year. His wife, son Ian (a medical administrator) his daughter in law and two grandchildren survived him.