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College Roll Bio
Walker, Allan Seymour
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Qualifications
MB Syd (1910) ChM Syd (1911) MD Syd (1922) FRACP (1938) (Foundation)
Born
19/06/1887
Died
08/01/1958
A founder and the first honorary secretary of the College, Allan Seymour Walker played an important role in the young College and developed an administrative structure which the passage of time proved to be effective and efficient. He was a quiet and reserved person who did not cultivate close relationships with colleagues, almost shy, but with a first-class mind, undisputed standing as a physician and a love of literature and music.
He was born at Richmond, 56km west of Sydney on 19 June 1887 and was educated in the state school system in which both his parents had served as teachers, his father, Thomas Walker, later becoming senior inspector of schools. He won a high school scholarship and passed the Senior examination in 1905 with a proxime accessit to the general proficiency prize, the medal in English and honours in Latin, French and mathematics. He entered the faculty of medicine at Sydney University in 1906 and graduated in 1910 with first-class honours.
After two years as a resident medical officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital he went to the western country town of Parkes in 1913 and spent several years in general practice. In 1914 he married Beatrice Phillips and in due course they had a son and two daughters. In 1921 and 1922 he undertook postgraduate studies in the department of pathology of his old medical school, gaining an MD with first-class honours and the University Medal in 1922. In that year he was appointed honorary assistant physician at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and resumed general practice at Summer Hill, a nearby suburb. He remained in general practice till 1927 when he set up as a consultant physician. In 1934 he achieved senior status at the Hospital when he was appointed honorary physician, a position he held until his retirement from the active hospital staff in 1945. He remained an honorary consulting physician until his death on 8 January 1958.
During those years in clinical practice he never lost his interest in pathology, and he taught pathology as well as clinical medicine to medical undergraduates. He was liked and respected by the students as an excellent clinician and a gentle person, punctual, careful and precise in his use of English. One of his students wrote that his teaching sessions were marked by a desire to assist students to understand clinical problems rather than to show up their ignorance.
He liked writing and did it well. He was a frequent contributor to the
Medical Journal of Australia
. He was a member of the council of the New South Wales branch of the British Medical Association from 1935 to 1939 and became a member of the Association of Physicians of Australasia. He was the honorary secretary of that body in 1938 when it was transformed into The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, so his election as honorary secretary of the College was natural and appropriate.
The Second World War broke out in September 1939. Allan Walker enlisted early and was appointed OC medical division of 2/1 Australian General Hospital with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He sought and obtained leave from his College duties in December 1939, shortly before leaving with his unit for service overseas. In 1942 he was appointed consulting physician to the Australian Military Forces and was later promoted to colonel. He returned to Australia but did not resume duties as honorary secretary of the College, and in 1944 retired from that position. He was then elected to the council and served on it until 1956. He was a censor from 1946 to 1948 and vice-president from 1948 to 1950. He was also the College representative on the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1949 to 1952.
In 1945 he was appointed to write the medical series of
Australia in the War, 1939-1945
, published by the Australian War Memorial. There his great gift of writing, his extensive knowledge of literature and his own wartime experiences served him well. The War itself had been a traumatic experience for his gentle, sensitive personality. He had emerged from it rather withdrawn and without some of the sparkle and enthusiasm of his pre-war years. But in writing - even about the War itself - he was happy. He worked very hard and produced the history in three volumes,
Clinical Problems of the War, Middle East and Far East
and
The Island Campaigns
, which were widely acclaimed. He had also gone beyond his original brief and done a considerable amount of work on a fourth volume dealing with the medical services of the Australian Navy and the RAAF before his death. The war history, written personally, not merely edited by him, stands as his memorial.
In his relatively brief time as honorary secretary of the College he set a high standard of accuracy in records. With a sense of history he insisted on transcribing the minutes of the first council meeting in the new minute book in his own hand. This modest, retiring, cultured man who never sought the public eye but seemed to avoid it, quietly left his mark on the College and on his country's historical literature.
Author
GL McDONALD
References
Med J Aust
, 1958,
1
, 688-90;
Senior Year Book, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney
, 1934, 1939.
Last Updated
May 30, 2018, 17:35 PM
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