Burston, Samuel Roy (Ginger) (1888 - 1960)

Summary

Samuel Burston was a physician renowned for his service to the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps. First commissioned as Captain in 1912 he served with distinction in both world wars, his military career coming to an end in 1948 when he relinquished the post of Director General of Medical Services. In his various postings he worked to anticipate hygiene and medical problems and circumvent them. This included initiating research into the causes of diarrhoea and other diseases. Such was the respect in which he was held that his plans for addressing complex medical problems affecting the troops were accepted by General Blamey without question. In particular, Burston was at the forefront of the Army's campaign against malaria in the west Pacific area and was influential in the establishment of the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit in Cairns. In the post-war period he was responsible for the provision of medical services to Commonwealth occupation forces in Japan and for the demobilisation of the Army Medical Services.

Details

Chronology

1910

Education - MB BS, University of Melbourne

1911

Career position - Resident Medical Officer, Adelaide Children's Hospital

1911 - 1912

Career position - Medical inspector of Aborigines, Northern Territory

1914 -

Career position - Honorary Assistant Physician, Adelaide Hospital

1915 - 1920

Career position - Served with the Australian Imperial Forces

1918

Award - Distinguished Service Order (DSO)

1919

Award - Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

1927

Award - Volunteer Decoration (VD)

1933

Education - Member, Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh

1933 - 1947

Career position - Honorary Physician, (Royal) Adelaide Hospital

1937

Education - Fellow, Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh

1938 - 1960

Career position - Founding Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Physicians

1942

Award - Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB)

1945

Career position - Fellow, Royal College of Physicians, London

1945

Award - Knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (KStJ)

1945 - 1957

Career position - Chief Commissioner of St John Ambulance Australia

1948

Life event - Retired as Director General of Medical Services in Australia, Royal Australian Army Medical Corps

1952

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)

1952 - 1957

Award - Honorary Colonel, Royal Australian Army Medical Corps

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Howie-Willis, Ian, A Medical Emergency: Major-General 'Ginger' Burston and the Army Medical Service in World War II (Newport (N.S.W.): Big Sky Publishing, 2012), 487 pp. Details
• Howie-Willis, Ian, An unending war: the Australian Army's struggle against malaria 1885 - 2015 (Newport (N.S.W.): Big Sky Publishing, 2016), 348 pp. Details
• McDonald, G. L., Roll of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (Sydney: Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 1988), 332 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Clerehan, Brian, 'Burston, Sir Samuel Roy (1888-1960), physician and army officer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 13: 1940 - 1980 A-De, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1993), pp. 314-315. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130354b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Howie-Willis, Ian, 'Australian malariology during World War II (part 3 of "Pioneers of Australian military malariology"', Journal of Military and Veteran's History, 25 (2) (2017), 46-68. Details
• Johnston, William, 'Obituary: Samuel Roy Burston', Medical Journal of Australia, 1961 (1) (1961), 184-7. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7372625. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/268218831. Details
• 'Burston, Samuel Roy (18880321-19600821)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1478940. Details