biographies

Cunningham, Charles (1890 - 1953)

M.B., B.S. (Melb.), D.A. (R.C.P. et S. Eng.)

Born
1890
Talbot, Victoria, Australia
Died
5 May 1953
Occupation
Anaesthetist and Medical Practitioner

Details

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


CHARLES CUNNINGHAM
(1924 - 1953)

Charles Cunningham, the son of Dr Peter Cunningham, was born in 1890 about 100 miles north of Melbourne at Talbot, at that time, as now, a small agricultural township, but at the height of the gold rush in 1858 this district harboured no fewer than 60,000 diggers encamped upon the Daisy Flat Lead.

Peter Cunningham was a Glasgow graduate, a relative of Professor D.J. Cunningham the famous anatomist and his even more famous son, Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, a relationship of which Charles Cunningham was very proud.

After attending a private school in the nearby larger centre of Maryborough, Charles was sent as a boarder to Scotch College, that at Eastern Hill on the site now occupied by St. Andrew’s Hospital; not till 1924 did Scotch College move to the lovely Hawthorn grounds of 60 acres at the eastern side of the confluence of the River Yarra and Gardiner’s Creek. In Charles Cunningham’s day the Principal of Scorch was W.S. Littlejohn, an Aberdonian who had come to Melbourne via Nelson College, New Zealand, where he had directed the young Ernest Rutherford to those mathematical and physical studies which later won him a barony, the Order of Merit and a Nobel Prize because of his eminence in the field of radioactivity. Old Scotch Collegians over the years have been well represented on the staff of the Women’s Hospital, among them being Rothwell Adam, W.G. Cuscaden, A.M. Wilson, J.S. Green, W.D. Saltau, George Simpson, W.M. Lemmon, R.M. Rome and Colin Macdonald.

Charles Cunningham graduated M.B. (Melb.) in 1918 and in 1939 his work in anaesthesia was recognised by the D.A. of the English Royal Colleges. After a term as Resident Medical Office at the Melbourne Hospital, he bought the general practice of Dr. Charles Marsden in Victoria Street, North Melbourne, but in later years devoted himself to anaesthesia only, being at one time or another Honorary Anaesthetist to the Women’s Hospital, Melbourne Hospital, Prince Henry’s and Eye and Ear Hospital.

Always interested in country pursuits he was surgeon to the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria and to the Findon and Oakland Hunt Clubs. For a period during the end of his life he sat on the Standing Committee of Convocation of the University and greatly enjoyed the academic association.

These varied interests brought his into contact with a wide circle of men and women and he possessed an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of people in the medical, legal and political spheres. He had acquired a wealth of forensic lore and there were few criminal trials - particularly those of medical interest - conducted in the first half of the twentieth century about which he could not recount every detail of importance. He loved the poetry and prose of our language and enjoyed nothing better that the happy and nostalgic discussions across the Hospital luncheon table with this lifelong friend Colin Macdonald.

He remained a bachelor, of few wants and simple tastes, for long periods living alone and cooking his own frugal meals. When not attending professional meetings he would generally be listening intently to symphonic music, none of the nuances of which he was not thoroughly familiar. Curiously enough he never travelled overseas in spite of his great interest in the British scene, and for many years his holidays were spent riding and walking in the Mount Buffalo area, the Government Chalet there being to him almost a home, and about which he suffered much gentle badinage because of skill in avoiding female entanglements.

Though Cunningham practised anaesthesia before it acquired its latter day excellence, he gave many years of reliable service in the speciality, and his short plump figure, round bald head, with very kindly eyes twinkling through heavy spectacles was well and most favourable known in Melbourne for almost half a century. Throughout his life exceedingly thrifty, as befitted his Scottish ancestry, he was in addition a very shrewd investor. Rather to the surprise of those who saw only his simple tastes and unextravagant living, when Cunningham died ain 1953 at the age of 63, he proved to be a wealthy man.

Archival/Heritage Resources

Royal Women's Hospital Archives

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

Prepared by: Robyn Waymouth

Created: 20 September 2006, Last modified: 26 November 2006