Robert Frank (Bob) West was part of a medical family. Like his older brother, Leonard Roy West (Munk’s Roll, VI 454), he was born at Kaniva in Western Victoria where their father Gordon Roy West MRACP (qv 1) was in general practice. His paternal grandfather, WA West was sometime chief inspector of schools. When the family moved back to Adelaide and his father continued general practice at Prospect, Bob entered St Peters College and then the Medical School of the University of Adelaide. On graduation he was awarded the Everard Scholarship for achieving the top position in his final year Following a residency year at the Adelaide Hospital he worked his passage to England as a ship’s surgeon. In 1937 he gained the MRCP. Returning to Adelaide he was one of the first successful examinees who gained the MRACP as the Australasian College had only been formed in 1938.

He joined the AIF in March of 1940, and was appointed RMO of the 2/7th Australian Field Regiment - a Unit of the 9th Australian Division. He saw service initially in Palestine and then the Unit was in action in North Africa from April 1941 at Mersa Matruh and then the coastal sector. These were the days of the Desert Column with the Germans under Rommel’s command. The Regiment was at a latter stage part of the 4th Indian Division and served with the Brigade of Guards. Its service was highly regarded. In January 1942 he received his majority and was appointed to the 2/3 CCS. After further training the Division returned to the Western Desert in June 1942. In preparation for tire the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942, his Unit was divided into light and heavy sections. Staffing of the light section consisted of two surgeons, an anaesthetist and a resuscitation officer. Bob was placed in command of the Section. This was the only Australian medical unit to advance beyond El Alamein reaching the neighbourhood of Matruh. Having 50 beds, the unit functioned exceptionally well under battle conditions, receiving a high proportion of the seriously wounded. It was able to serve in effect as a Main Dressing Station and its successful function led to a reconsideration of the medical organisation in this part of the front.

With the success of that battle, the Australian Division was withdrawn to Australia to cope with the Japanese invasion in the north. Bob returned in January 1943 as medical officer on a hospital ship for the walking wounded. In March 1943 he was appointed physician-in-charge of the medical division of 109 AGH, posted to Adelaide River in the Northern Territory. Four months later he was admitted to hospital with encephalomyelitis. After a prolonged convalescence he was discharged unfit early in 1946. He had demonstrated considerable administrative skills both as a regimental medical officer, when he was able to set up a small hospital unit, and in his work during the Battle of El Alamein. Those skills were further to be displayed later in his career.

Like other colleagues whose careers had been interrupted by war service, Bob established himself as a consultant physician in Adelaide. He began service in the by then “Royal” Adelaide Hospital (RAH). From 1947-52 he was honorary medical officer in charge of the resuscitation clinic, and from 1951-57 honorary assistant physician and honorary physician 1957-70. When the honorary system was abolished he continued as a consultant physician until reaching what was then the statutory retiring age of 65 years. He continued in private practice retiring just after his 74th birthday. Bob West was among the last of that group of doctors who acted as GPs as well as consultant physicians. The true consultant, referral only, physicians started in Adelaide in the late 1960s.

Intelligent and practical with a quick brain, he was highly regarded as a physician; as a lecturer in medicine at the University of Adelaide a respected and effective teacher. He served as chairman of the RAH medical staff society, 1966-68 and was one of two staff representatives on the Committee planning and supervising the rebuilding of RAH in the 1960's. This hospital had a bed complement of about 1,000 beds which at the same time, being the major teaching hospital in Adelaide, needed to continue to function without interruption. He was a member of the State Committee of the RACP 1958-68, and several committees of the National Heart Foundation (South Australian Division). He was one of the early members of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand when it was formed in 1954.

After the War, he travelled extensively. In London in1950 at the Royal Post-graduate Medical School he observed a flame photometer built by the Hospital. Returning to Adelaide he brought with him the parts and details for it to be assembled. This served the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science (in its function as laboratory to the RAH) for many years. At the Mayo Clinic in 1956, he saw its cardiac diagnostic services and open-heart surgery program. In 1959 he was a strong advocate for the development of similar services at RAH and they were established in 1960.

His skills were not limited to medicine: he represented the University of Adelaide and South Australia at lacrosse, and he was a very keen golfer. After a leg was amputated because of peripheral vascular disease he learnt to use a prosthesis, and played bowls.

He was married twice – in 1938 to Constance Garrard and after that marriage was dissolved, to Anne Chibnall by whom he had a son Robert, born in 1964. With Anne’s illness and early death Bob became a sole parent. As a young man he had been regarded as peppery. He mellowed considerably over the years but with the birth of his son, life took on a new dimension. Always gregarious, he became a family man and devoted his life to his son who was 19 when Bob died from a heart attack