biographies

Allan, Robert Marshall (1886 - 1946)

M.D., F.R.C.S. (Edin.), F.R.A.C.S., F.A.C.S. (Hon.), F.R.C.O.G.

Born
1886
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Died
29 July 1946
Occupation
Gynaecologist, Medical Practitioner 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.


ROBERT MARSHALL ALLAN
(1928 - 1946)

Robert Marshall Allan, son of James Allan from Stirling, Scotland, was born in 1886 at Brisbane. He received his early education at the Brisbane Grammar School and the Scots College, Sydney, later proceeding to Scotland to study medicine, and graduating M.B., Ch.B., with honours, in 1910 at the University of Edinburgh.

An interest in obstetrics and gynaecology was already aroused and, following graduation, he worked for six months at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, obtaining the Licentiate in Midwifery. He had previously been awarded the McCosh Travelling Bursary of the University of Edinburgh, and now spent one year on the Continent at the leading obstetrical and gynaecological clinics of Paris, Berlin, Munich and Vienna. He returned to the Rotunda and, in November, 1911, became Assistant Master (under Dr. Henry Jellett); holding this position for three years until the outbreak of the first world war. In 1914, he was awarded the M.D., Edinburgh, for a thesis on the action of pituitary extract in labour.

From 1914 until 1919 Allan was on active service with the Royal Army Medical Corps, and later with the Australian Imperial Force. He served in France, Mesopotamia and in the successful campaign led by Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Maude for the relief of Kut-el-Amara, on the Tigris. He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Military Cross.

After the Armistice he obtained study leave and passed the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, taking gynaecology as a special subject.

In 1919, Marshall Allan returned to Australia to commence private practice as a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology at Brisbane, being appointed Honorary Obstetrician to the Lady Bowen Maternity Hospital and Honorary assistant Gynaecologist to the Brisbane Hospital. He was Honorary Secretary of the Queensland Branch of the British Medical Association and Secretary of the Medical Defence Society of Queensland from 1920 until 1925. An organising ability was displayed when he was Assistant General Secretary of the Australasian Medical Congress held at Brisbane in 1920.

A few years later, in 1925, Allan was appointed, from, a large number of candidates, Director of Obstetrical Research in Victoria. The Edward Wilson Trust was responsible for this valuable project in which Dr. Dunbar Hooper, formerly on the staff of the Women’s Hospital, was the moving spirit. Under the terms of his appointment, Marshall Allan traversed the whole State of Victoria, consulting with almost every medical practitioner and reviewing their obstetrical work. After two strenuous years was presented his notable report on Victorian maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality; this was published in "The Medical Journal of Australia" of 1st January 1927, and attracted wide attention. His keen observations and practical recommendations made a great impression on obstetricians throughout the Commonwealth, and there appears little doubt that the implementing of his advice was primarily responsible for that marked improvement in the Victorian practice of obstetrics which developed in the two decades from 1925 onwards.

Allan, now aged forty-five was the logical choice for the first occupant of the Chair of Obstetrics when this was created in 1929. He became a member of the Honorary Staff of the Women’s Hospital and quickly settled down to thorough undergraduate and post graduate teaching.

Keenly interested in research and development of obstetrics outside Australia, during his 17 years a Professor he undertook two trips abroad to Britain, the Continent and the United States. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and later a Foundation Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Of which, in recognition of his splendid work and leadership, he was made, just 4 months before his death, a vice-president elect – an honour for the first time conferred on a resident outside Great Britain.

He strongly supported the setting up of a Regional Council in this country and he planned the holding of the first examination in Australia for membership of that College. He was also a Foundation Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Marshall Allan was particularly interested in the British Medical Association and in 1937 filled with dignity the position of President of the Victorian Branch. Soon after arrival in Melbourne he became actively associated with the Victorian Bush Nursing Association and served both as a Council Member and later as Honorary Secretary.

Professor Marshall Allan was a handsome man, of well proportioned build and twinkling eyes that would attract attention in any company. His background in the main was composed of colonial Scottish Presbyterianism, a full undergraduate life in the heyday of the Edinburgh Medical School, and a long and varied service in the first world war in which he was initially attached to the famous King’s Royal Rifles, oldest of the rifle regiments. He dearly loved the people of the United Kingdom and their institutions, and was never happier than when cementing professional and personal ties with the Homeland and with New Zealand; thus the furtherance in Australia of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists was very dear to his heart and its firm establishment her afforded him the greatest satisfaction.

The Professor was an excellent teacher - taking the utmost pains in the preparation of his lectures and the comprehensive notes thereon - and was a careful, though not a brilliant operator. He held strong unequivocal views on those controversial non-medical subjects of politics, religion and international affairs, sometimes forcibly expressing them in unexpected places; but this apparent rigidity of opinion was really only a very translucent facade for his true qualities of sincerity, constancy, helpfulness and kindness, which many a student - post graduate as well as undergraduate - had occasion to confirm joyfully when the examination results were posted. In his desk at the Women’s Hospital was found the counsel –

"Let me not live...
After my flame lacks oil to be the snuff of younger spirits".

An omnivorous reader, with a splendid memory, he must surely have been one of the most knowledgeable men of his time in this country, though his wide acquirements were veiled by modesty and often shyness.

Not an eloquent speaker, his exposition of a subject contained all relevant facts, presented in a proper perspective. Pretension and snobbery - intellectual or social - in whatever guise, he was quick to denounce at any time or place. He was steeped in the history and tradition of amateur Rugby football, which as a school boy he had played well. It can be remembered how, (during the last month of his life), being subjected at luncheon to gentle badinage when it was reported that an Australian Rugby player had an ear bitten off, with what gleeful zest - sick man though he was - he countered by saying that the malfeasance had occurred under the League, and not his beloved Union, code of rules.

In 1944 he suffered a severe coronary thrombosis and was compelled to rest for 18 months, the professional duties being carried on by his colleague, Dr. W. Ivon Hayes. The Professor eventually resumed full activities, though knowing well that the end might come at any time.

Aged sixty years, he died on 29th July 1946 as he would have wished, at work till the last, leaving a widow (nee Miss M.E. Dines), a daughter Nancy, and a son James.

Marshall Allan will always be fondly remembered by those privileged to be counted among his friends, for much of his life was spent in those oft-forgotten acts of kindness and goodwill which so generously temper life’s asperities.

But "real work requires no interpreter; the everyday deeds form its blazonry".

Archival/Heritage Resources

Royal Women's Hospital Archives

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

Images

Title
Allan, Marshall
Type
Image
Details

Prepared by: Robyn Waymouth

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