Cumpston, John Howard Lidgett (1880 - 1954)

Summary

John Cumpston qualified in medicine at the University of Melbourne in 1902 and devoted his career to preventive and public health. Initially joining the Western Australian Central Board of Health, he was chief quarantine officer for the Commonwealth Government in several states to 1921. During this time Australia had notable success in preventing the introduction of disease by returning servicemen, and in managing the influenza pandemic. In 1921 Cumpston became Director-General of the Department of Health and Director of Quarantine, a position he held until 1945. The Department moved to Canberra in 1928, and, with reduction in funding, became for several years less dynamic in its activities. Cumpston continued to promote health rather than the treatment of illness. From 1914 he published a series of pioneering and well-researched books on the history of epidemic diseases in Australia, including smallpox, scarlet fever, the plague and whooping cough. In retirement he turned his attention to Australian explorers, notably Charles Sturt, Augustus Gregory and Thomas Mitchell.

Details

Chronology

1902

Education - Qualified in medicine, University of Melbourne

1906

Education - Diploma in Public Health, London

1907

Education - Doctor of Medicine (MD), University of Melbourne

1907 - 1911

Career position - Medical Officer, Central Board of Health, Western Australia

1910 - 1911

Career position - General quarantine officer in Western Australia, Commonwealth Government

1911 - 1912

Career position - Chief Quarantine Officer in Victoria, Commonwealth Government

1912 - 1913

Career position - Supervising Quarantine Officer in Queensland, Commonwealth Government

1921 - 1945

Career position - Director General, Department of Health, Commonwealth of Australia

1926

Career event - Elected Member (Pathology), Australian National Research Council

1927 - 1937

Career position - Chairman, Federal Health Council

1928

Career position - President, Section I (Medical Science and National Health), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

Mar 1929

Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) - Director-General of Health & Quarantine

1937

Career event - Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

Related entries

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• John Howard Lidgett Cumpston - Records, 1850 - 1945, B1536; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• John Howard Lidgett Cumpston - Records, 1906 - 1953, ML MSS 3000; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• John Howard Lidgett Cumpston - Records, 1914 - 1929, MS 434; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
• John Howard Lidgett Cumpston - Records, 1852 - 1981, MS 613; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Cumpston, H. J. L., Augustus Gregory and the inland sea (Canberra: Roebuck Society, 1972), 146 pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L., The history of smallpox in Australia (1788-1908) (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1914), 182 pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L., Influenza and maritime quarantine in Australia (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1919), 176 pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L., The history of diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles and whooping cough in Australia (1788-1925) (Melbourne: Department of Health, 1927), 617 p. pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L., Charles Sturt: His Life and Journeys of Exploration (Melbourne: Georgian House, 1951), 195 pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L., Thomas Mitchell: Surveyor General and Explorer (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1954), 270 pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L., The inland sea and the great river : the story of Australian exploration (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1964), 205 pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L., The health of the people: a study in federalism (Canberra: Roebuck Society, 1978), 148 pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L.; and MacCallum, F., The history of smallpox in Australia (1909-1923) (Melbourne: Department of Health, 1925), 243 pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L.; and McCallum, F., The history of plague in Australia, 1900-1925 (Melbourne: Department of Health, 1926), 238 pp. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L.; and McCallum, F., A history of the intestinal infections (and thyphus fever) in Australia 1788-1923 (Melbourne: Department of Health, 1927), 738 pp. Details
• Spencer, Margaret, John Howard Lidgett Cumpston, 1880-1954: a Biography (Tenterfield: the author, 1987), 311 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Roe, Michael, 'Cumpston, John Howard Lidgett (1880-1954), first director-general of the Australian Department of Health' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 174-176, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cumpston-john-howard-lidgett-5846. Details
• Winterton, Peter M., 'The Cumpston years in Western Australia' in "Outpost medicine": Australasian studies on the history of medicine: Third National Conference of the Australian Society of the History of Medicine, Hobart, February 1993, Atkins, Susanne, Kirkby, Kenneth, Thomson, Philip and Pearn, John, eds (Hobart: University of Tasmania and the Australian Society of the History of Medicine, 1994), pp. 131-40. Details

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'John Howard Lidgett Cumpston', Medical Journal of Australia, 1955 (1) (1955), 191-3. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L., 'Presidential address at the Australasian Medical Congress in Brisbane', Medical journal of Australia (1920), 218-23. Details
• Cumpston, J. H. L., 'The history of medical journalism in Australia', Medical Journal of Australia, 1939 (2) (1939), 1-5. Details
• Hobbins, Peter G., '"Immunisation is as Popular as a Death Adder": the Bundaberg Tragedy and the Political Deployment of Medical Science in Interwar Australia', Social History of Medicine, 24 (2) (2011), 426-44, http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/09/03/shm.hkq047.abstract. Details
• Hyslop, Anthea, 'A Question of Identity: J.H.L. Cumpston and Spanish Influenza, 1918-1919', Australian Cultural History, 16 (1997-1998), 77-95. Details
• Roe, Michael, 'The establishment of the Australian Department of Health', Historical studies, 17 (76) (1976), 176-92. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/50857397. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q19872672. Details
• 'Cumpston, J H L (1880-1954)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-805274. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_c.html. Details
• Ashton, D. H.; Ducker, S. C., 'John Stewart Turner 1908-1991', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (3) (1993), 278-290. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9930930278. Details
• Fenner, Frank ed., History of Microbiology in Australia (Melbourne: Australian Society for Microbiology, 1990), 624 pp. Details
• Howie-Willis, Ian, 'Malariology in Australia between the first and second world wars (part 2 of "Pioneers of Australian military malariology")', Journal of Military and Veterans' Health, 24 (2) (2016), 28-39. Details
• Leithhead, Barry, A vision for Australia's health: Dr Cecil Cook at work (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2019), 358 pp. Details
• Roe, Michael, 'Elkington, John Simeon Colebrook (1871-1955), advocate of public health' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 425-426. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080450b.htm. Details
• Spencer, Margaret, Malaria: the Australian Experience, 1843-1991 (Townsville: Australian College of Tropical Medicine, 1994), 213 pp. Details