biographies

Balls-Headley, Walter (1842 - 1918)

M.A., M.D. (Camb.), F.R.C.P. (Lond.)

Born
1842
Shelford, Cambridgeshire, England
Died
7 March, 1918
Mira Michi, Proctor, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation
Medical practitioner, Gynaecologist and Obstetrician

Details

Transcription of item written by Dr Colin Macdonald and published in "The Book of Remembrance", The Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, 1956.


WALTER BALLS-HEADLEY
(1878 - 1900)

Walter Balls-Headley, a tall distinguished-looking and scholarly Englishman, played an important part in the Women’s Hospital for twenty-two years at the close of the nineteenth century. During this time he possessed the distinction of being the only member of the Women’s staff to be elected F.R.C.P. London.

Studying medicine at Addenbrooke’s and St. Bartholomew’s Hospitals, he subsequently took the M.D. (Cantab.) in 1868, the M.R.C.P. (Lond.) 1866, being elected F.R.C.P. 1888.

Born Walter Balls at Shelford, Cambridgeshire in 1842, he entered Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, as a pensioner in June 1858. He held resident appointments both at St. Bartholomew’s and Great Ormond Street, before coming to Australia. He was at first in Warwick, Queensland but moved to Melbourne in the seventies, and was elected physician to the Alfred Hospital in 1876. In 1878 he was appointed to the Women’s, eight years later assuming the additional surname of Headley, and as Balls-Headley he was always known.

He returned quietly to England in 1900 and for some years practiced in Tavistock Square, London. He retired in 1908, and after two years at Bideford in Devon, finally settled at Mira Michi, Proctor, British Columbia, where he died 7th March, 1918, aged 76 years.

During the nineties Balls-Headley was probably the leading gynaecologist in Melbourne, and occupied an important position in Australian medicine. He was President of the Medical Society of Victoria, President of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Intercolonial Medical Congress in 1892, a one-time Member of the Councils of the British Gynaecological Society and the Obstetrical Society of London, and Lecturer in Diseases of Women at the University of Melbourne. He was author of "The Evolution of the Diseases of Women" in Allbutt and Playfair’s "System of Gynaecology".

Balls-Headley had the reputation of a very neat operator. He performed the first Caesarean section in Victoria at the Women’s Hospital; the operation (on a single woman) was a great success, and the baby was christened at the Hospital receiving the names of Balls Headley, after approval by the Ladies’ Committee.

A long continued search made in 1953-55 throughout Australia, Britain and Canada in an endeavour to trace any family or relatives of Balls-Headley was fruitless.

Archival/Heritage Resources

Royal Women's Hospital Archives

  • Book of Remembrance, 1956 - 1975; Royal Women's Hospital Archives [ Details... ].

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Prepared by: Robyn Waymouth

Created: 31 July 2006, Last modified: 26 November 2006