Syme, George Adlington (1859 - 1929)

Summary

Sir George Syme carried out the first successful removal of an intra-cranial meningioma in Australia (1893). He studied at the Melbourne Hospital and was later appointed in-patient surgeon there in 1903. By the time Syme retired from the hospital in 1919 he had progressed to resident, surgeon, consultant surgeon and finally president of the hospital. Syme also concurrently held other positions including honorary surgeon to in-patients at St Vincent's Hospital (1893-1903), Surgeon to the Victorian police force, and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at the Melbourne Dental Hospital. At some stage early in his career he studied at King's College Hospital in London and held appointments at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, the Central London Throat and Ear Hospital and the Soho Hospital. His portrait by John Longstaff is held by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Melbourne.

Details

Chronology

1880s - 1924

Career position - Private practice

1881

Education - Bachelor of Medicine (MB), University of Melbourne

1882

Education - Bachelor of Surgery (BCh), University of Melbourne

1885 -

Award - Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS)

1887 -

Career position - Honorary Pathologist at the Women's Hospital

1887 -

Career position - Honorary Surgeon to out-patients at the Melbourne Hospital

1887 - c. 1890

Career position - Demonstrator and Examiner in Anatomy, University of Melbourne

1888

Education - Master of Surgery (MS), University of Melbourne

1889 -

Career position - Surgeon to the Victorian police force

1890 -

Career position - Acting Professor of Anatomy, University of Melbourne

1891 -

Career position - Honorary Consultant Surgeon at the Melbourne Dental Hospital

1893 - 1903

Career position - Honorary Surgeon to in-patients at St Vincent's Hospital

1903 - 1919

Career position - In-patient Surgeon at Melbourne Hospital

1908

Career position - President, British Medical Association, Victorian branch

1914 - 1916

Military service - Lieutenant-Colonel with the Australian Imperial Force

1919

Career position - President, British Medical Association, Victorian branch

1922 - 1929

Career position - Chairman of the Federal council, British Medical Association

1924

Career position - Chairman, Commonwealth royal commission on health

1924

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) - for Service to Victoria

1924 - 1927

Career position - President, Australasian Medical Congress (British Medical Association)

1927

Career position - Founding Fellow, and Inaugural President, College of Surgeons of Australasia

1929

Award - Honorary Fellow, American College of Surgeons

1929

Award - Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD), University of Wales

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Kenny, Patrick (Sir), The founders of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (Melbourne, Victoria: The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, 1984), 84 pp, https://www.surgeons.org/-/media/Project/RACS/surgeons-org/files/our-heritage-archives/founders.pdf. Details
• Vellar, Ivo, The Magnificent Seven: Foundation Surgeons of St Vincent's Hospital (Noosa Heads, Qld: Publishing Solutions, 2011), 174 pp. Details

Book Sections

• O'Brien, Bernard McC, 'Syme, Sir George Adlington (1859-1929), surgeon' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 155-156. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120173b.htm. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5536079. Details
• 'Syme, George Adlington (1859-1929)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1476046. Details

See also

• Howard, R. N., 'The founders of the College: Victoria', Australian and New Zealand journal of surgery, 51 (2) (1981), 227-38. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1445-2197.1981.tb05948.x. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details