Cilento, Raphael West (1893 - 1985)

Summary

Sir Raphael Cilento graduated in medicine at the University of Adelaide and then specialized in tropical medicine. He was Director-General of Health and Medical Services in Queensland 1934-1945 and Professor of Social and Tropical Medicine at the University of Queensland.

After the Second World War he took leading roles in preventative medicine with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in the Balkans and Germany, and with the United Nations Secretariat in New York and Palestine.

After he returned to Australia in 1951, he took up part-time medical practice in Mooloolaba, wrote articles for journals and newspapers, and unsuccessfully stood for election in Commonwealth parliament.

An active historical researcher, he was president of the (Royal) Historical Society of Queensland (1933-34, 1943-45, 1953-68) and of the National Trust of Queensland (1966-71).

Details

Chronology

1915 - 1919

Military service - First World War. Captain, Australian Army Medical Corps, Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force

1918

Education - Bachelor of Medicine (MD) and Bachelor of Surgery (BS), University of Adelaide

1920 - 1921

Career position - Physician to the sultanate of Perak, Federated Malay States

1921 - 1922

Career position - Medical Officer for Tropical Hygiene, Commonwealth Department of Health, Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine, Townsville, Queensland

1922

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

1922

Education - Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

1922 - 1927

Career position - Director, Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine

1923

Career event - Fellow, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, London

1924 - 1928

Career position - Seconded to Rabaul, as Director of public health for the Mandated Territory of New Guinea

1928 - 1933

Career position - Director, Division of Tropical Hygiene and Chief Quarantine Officer, North East Division of Australia

1932

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

1934 - 1945

Career position - Director-General, Health and Medical Services, Queensland

1935

Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt) - Director-General of the Queensland Health Department

1936

Career event - Member, Nutrition Advisory Council, Commonwealth Government

1937

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

1937 - 1945

Career position - Honorary Professor of Social and Tropical Medicine, University of Queensland

1939 - 1945

Career position - President, Medical Board of Queensland

1945 - 1946

Career position - Zone Director, British Zone in Germany, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA)

1946 - 1947

Career position - Director for Refugees and Displaced Persons, Department of Social Affairs, United Nations Secretariat

1947 - 1948

Career position - Director, Division of Social Activities, UN Secretariat, New York

1948 - 1950

Career position - Director of disaster relief in Palestine, UN Secretariat

1951 -

Career position - Part-time Medical practice, Mooloolaba, Queensland

1966 - 1970

Career position - President, National Trust of Queensland

Related entries

Archival resources

Fryer Library and Department of Special Collections, University of Queensland

• Raphael West Cilento - Records, 1913 - 1972, UQFL 44; Fryer Library and Department of Special Collections, University of Queensland. Details

Published resources

Books

• Cameron-Smith, Alexander, A doctor across borders: Raphael Cilento and public health from empire to the United Nations (Canberra: ANU Press, 2019), 314 pp. http://doi.org/10.22459/DAB.2019. Details
• Cilento, R. W., Malaria: with special reference to Australia and its dependencies (Melbourne: Division of Tropical Hyeiene, Commonwealth Department of Health, [1924?]), 141 pp. Details
• Cilento, R. W., Filariasis, with special reference to Australia and its dependencies: a review and compilation (Melbourne: Government Printer, [1924?]), 78 pp. Details
• Cilento, Raphael, The white man in the tropics: with special reference to Australia and its dependencies (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1925), 168 pp. Details
• Cilento, Raphael, Tropical diseases in Australasia (Brisbane: Smith & Paterson, 1940), 371 pp. Details
• Cilento, Raphael, Blueprint for the health of a nation (Sydney: Printer: Scotow Press, 1944), 184 pp. Details
• Fisher, Fedora Gould, Raphael Cilento, a Biography (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1994), 369 pp. Details
• Gregory, Helen, Vivant Professores: Distinguished Members of the University of Queensland, 1910-1940 (St Lucia: University of Queensland Library, 1987), 180 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Finnane, Mark, 'Cilento, Sir Raphael West (1893-1985), Medical Practitioner' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 17: 1981 - 1990 A-K, Diane Langmore, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), pp. 215-217. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cilento-sir-raphael-west-ray-12319. Details

Journal Articles

• Cameron-Smith, Alexander, 'Raphael Cilento's Empire: Diet, Health and Government Between Australia and the Colonial Pacific', Journal of Australian Studies, 38 (2014), 103-18. Details
• Cilento, R., 'Preventive medicine and hygiene in the tropical territories under Australian control', Report of the sixteenth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 16 (1924), 672-84. Details
• Cilento, Raphael, 'Medicine in Queensland', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 6 (4) (1962), 866-941. Details
• Cilento, Raphael, 'Sir Joseph Banks F.R.S. and the naming of the kangaroo', Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 26 (1971), 157-61. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q13220759. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/11129868. Details
• Sir Raphael Cilento Collection, University of Queensland Fryer Library, 2003, http://www.library.uq.edu.au/fryer/ms/uqfl44.doc. Details
• CA 2001 Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office, 'NAA: B2455, Cilento R W', B2455 First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=3249229. Details
• CA 946, Security Service, New South Wales, 'NAA: C123, 21669', C123 World War II security investigation dossiers, single number series, National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=735388. Details
• 'Cilento, Raphael (18931202-19850415)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-618850. Details

See also

• 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
• Howie-Willis, Ian, 'The pioneers of Australian military malariology: some biographical profiles (part 1)', Journal of Military and Veterans' Health, 24 (1) (2016), 12-24. 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