Person
Cook, Cecil Evelyn Aufrere (Mick) (1897 - 1985)
- Born
- 23 September 1897
Bexhill, Surrey, United Kingdom - Died
- 4 July 1985
Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Medical administrator and Medical practitioner
Summary
Cecil Cook was a medical practitioner who in 1927 became chief Medical Officer and Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory. Based in Darwin he was able to concentrate on establishing a public health system. He established a training school for nurses and a tuberculosis clinic at Darwin Hospital (1929), general hospitals at Katherine (1931), Tennant Creek (1936) and Alice Springs (1939), and a hospital for lepers outside Darwin (1931). With colleague Clyde Fenton he began the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service. Cook championed the welfare of full-blood Aborigines but looked for ways to 'uplift' the morality and standards of living of 'half-castes'. As a senior public health officer for the Western Australian and Commonwealth Governments, Cook interested himself in perinatal and infant health, traffic injuries, skin cancer, food standards, native health and the carcinogenic properties of tobacco. As Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council's public health committee he played a leading role in Australia's campaign against poliomyelitis.
Details
Chronology
- 1899
- Life event - Migrated to Australia with his family
- 1920
- Education - MB ChM, University of Sydney
- 1923
- Education - DTM&H, London School of Tropical Medicine
- 1927 - 1939
- Career position - Chief Medical Officer and Chief Protector of Aborigines, North Australia
- 1929
- Education - MD, University of Sydney
- 1931
- Education - DPH, University of Sydney
- 1935
- Award - Cilento Medal, Australian Institute of Anatomy
- 1935
- Award - Commander of the Order of he British Empire (CBE)
- 1939 - 1941
- Career position - Lecturer, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney
- 1941 - 1946
- Career position - Served with the Australian Imperial Forces
- 1946 - 1949
- Career position - Commissioner of Public Health, Western Australia
- 1949 - 1958
- Career position - Senior Medical Officer, Commonwealth Department of Health
- 1958 - 1962
- Career position - Director, Division of Public Health, Commonwealth Department of Health
- 1964 - 1972
- Career position - Member, Human Biology Advisory Committee, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies
Related entries
Published resources
Books
- Cook, Cecil, The epidemiology of leprosy in Australia : being the report of an investigation in Australia during the years 1923-1925 under the terms of the Wandsworth Research Scholarship of the London School of Tropical Medicine (Canberra: Department of Health, 1927), 303 pp. Details
- Leithhead, Barry, A vision for Australia's health: Dr Cecil Cook at work (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2019), 358 pp. Details
Book Sections
- Rowse, Tim, 'Cook, Cecil Evelyn Aufrere (1897-1985), Medical Practitioner' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 17: 1981 - 1990 A-K, Diane Langmore, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), pp. 242-243. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cook-cecil-evelyn-aufrere-mick-12343. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1052283. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/3490148390832710830003. Details
- 'Cook, Cecil Evelyn Aufrere (18970923-19850704)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1515961. Details
See also
- Kettle, Ellen, Health Services in the Northern Territory: a History, 1824-1970 (Darwin: North Australian Research Unit, Australian National University, 1991), 700 pp. Details
Helen Cohn
Last modified: 23 January 2023