biographies

Allen, Sydney Herbert (1876 - )

F.R.C.S. (Edin.)

Born
13 October 1876
Carlton, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Surgeon

Details

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


SYDNEY HERBERT ALLEN
(1914 - 1937)

The death on September 9th of Sydney Herbert Allen, in his eighty-third year, severs one of the last remaining links with the Melbourne Medical School of the last century, in the closing years of which Harry Brookes Allen was the Professor of Anatomy. Allen’s professorship spanned 42 years, and he exerted an influence on Victorian medicine akin to that of Anderson Stuart in Sydney.

Students then, as now, made their introduction to Anatomy and Physiology in the second year of the course, and with Allen examining it proved too stiff a hurdle for many of the first attempt; a number of these with sufficient financial backing wasted no time in departing for Edinburgh where, it was contended, teaching was better. Clinical material was relatively limited in the Scottish capital, and as the competition for students was very keen amongst the many teachers (most of who lived mainly thereby) the standard of instruction had to be high. There, too, was the added attraction of a medical qualification - in the conjoint licentiate of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons - easier to obtain than the M.B. (Melbourne). Many such Australian expatriates did not rest content with the Licentiate but, remaining in Britain for a further 2 or 3 years, obtained the higher diplomas of M.R.C.P.E. or F.R.C.S.E. Almost without exception these young men did very well on returning to Australia, bringing with them a mystique of having been trained in Edinburgh, than which, it was averred by their relatives and friends and patients, there was no better medical school in all Christendom. They had lived and worked in the storied homeland, across twelve thousand miles of ocean, and had acquired a poise and polish and confidence often envied by local graduates. Such a one of these Edinburgh diplomats was Sydney Herbert Allen, F.R.C.S.E.

For hundreds of years the mind of the English speaking populace has associated characteristics and temperaments of individuals with the nation to which they and their forbears belonged. Everybody knows the Scots have been linked with financial meanness and love of scholarship, the English with a reserved and phlegmatic temperament allied with a caste consciousness, the Irish with the heavy touch of the blarney, and the Jews with flamboyance and aggressiveness. Sydney Allen belonged to the last racial group, but as if to illustrate how erroneous are these time hallowed misconceptions, nowhere in the world could be found a more modest and self-effacing spirit.

In the eighties and nineties of last century three brothers were very reputable Melbourne bookmakers - Barney, (a legendary figure on the Victorian turf), Sam, and Benjamin Allen. Benjamin Allen married Julia Goldsmith, and the subject of this memoir, the eldest of their family of four, was born on 13th October, 1876, in Drummond Street, Carlton, one of Melbourne’s northern suburbs. His matriculation was obtained from the Carlton Grammar School, where the Headmaster was Robert Jones. This was one of the private schools - all long since out of existence - which provided secondary education to follow up the primary instructions made free, secular, and compulsory, by the Victorian Education Act of 1872. Many of those small schools were admirable, inculcating high ethical and spiritual values, and preparing young people for effective future citizenship and the realities of community life; but they were doomed with the growth of the large and powerful Church and High Schools, and today they and their work are remembered by only a few elderly antiquarians.

Allen had spent two years in the medical course at Melbourne later becoming L.R.C.S., Edinburgh in 1900; after some years as a houseman in British hospitals, he gained the F.R.C.S.E. in 1902; twenty-six years later he was elected a foundation F.R.A.C.S.

In Edinburgh, the two men who most influenced Allen were Alexis Thomson and Halliday Croom. Thomson had a decisive and epigrammatic style, found very stimulating by his students. At a later period (in 1904) he became Professor of Surgery, and in collaboration with Alexander Miles published "A Manual of Surgery" and "A Manual of Operative Surgery", which established themselves as standard text books in Britain and abroad. For almost fifty years Halliday Croom was celebrated as a lecturer, taking infinite trouble to prepare every lecture he delivered, and during his time as an extramural lecturer at Edinburgh, no student’s course was considered complete unless he had attended Croom, appointed University Professor of Midwifery in 1905.

On returning to Melbourne, Allen succeeded to the general practice of John Gordon, when the latter was appointed In-Patient Surgeon to the Melbourne Hospital. During this period he worked hard at Public Charities, for he held the positions of the first Medical Superintendent at the Infectious Disease Hospital at Fairfield (to which he drove daily in his shining black jinker), Surgeon to Out-Patients at the Children’s Hospital and Anaesthetist at St. Vincent’s. The Matron at Fairfield in Allen’s day was Miss Evelyn Conyers, later Matron in Chief of the Australian Nursing Services in the 1914-1918 war. Allen was appointed Out-Patients Surgeon at the Women’s Hospital in 1914, in the same year as his friends, Edward White, Arthur Sherwin, William Cuscaden, Lennox Speirs and Milne Sutherland; the leaders at the Hospital then were Felix Meyer, Reginald Morrison and F.W.W. Morton. This was the year of the outbreak of the first World War, and twelve months later Allen sailed with the 2nd A.G.H. in the "Orontes" for Egypt, later to proceed to France; my late partner, Sir Stanley Argyle, often told me how happy a band of medical officers were those in the "Orontes". Later he practiced at St. Kilda, where he was City Health Officer for a period of seventeen years that terminated only a few weeks before his death.

Residents at the Women’s were always pleased when allotted to Allen’s beds, for if they won his approval, by keeping good histories and treating patients with humanity and kindness, he was very generous with operations performed under his guidance; this obtained particularly in his latter years, when he suffered from frequent bouts of crippling lumbago; he would sit beside the operating table quietly giving instructions and encouragement.

Allen did very little systematic teaching, either at the bedside or in the lecture room; nor did I recall any contribution by him to medical literature. I had an occasion many years ago to discuss with Syd. his teaching inactivity. "I realize my apparent shortcoming in this regard" he, in his slow, husky voice, reflected, "but I believe that unless those asked to teach have a gift of exposition, it is better for the students to do most of their work themselves. There are now excellent textbooks available, and I have the feeling they are being subjected to a hyperalimentation in lectures and demonstrations, which occupy practically every hour of their day; many gave no time to stand and stare, to play a game of football or even billiards. I feel that I can fulfill my best function by helping and encouraging my stream of residents to perform, skilfully and with confidence, those gynaecological operations they may be called upon to undertake in general practice, perhaps many miles from a surgical centre.

I believe it is because of this surgical opportunity – limited though it may be – that in the past, at least, our Australian general practitioners have acquired a world wide reputation for all-round competence superior to those of many other countries”.

Allen was of average height and build, always immaculately dressed, bowler hat, gloves and cane matching, with the features of his forbears and his dark eyes always twinkling with kindness; he had no enemies and he spoke no ill of anyone. Allen loved sociable company, and was a devoted member of the University Club, being its President for no fewer than thirty-three years. Here he could always be certain of a keen hand of bridge or poker or billiards; here, too, he would be kept up to date on the acceptance of starting prices for Flemington, Caulfield, Moonee Valley or even the Ballarat Miners. The University Club of Melbourne, first founded in 1903, has never enjoyed the strong support of its counterpart in Sydney, but Allen was very proud, that amongst his predecessors as its President, were men of the eminence of Sir John Madden, Sir Leo Cussen, and Sir John Monash. Allen was a lifelong devotee of horse racing and was honorary surgeon to the Moonee Valley Racing Club for thirty-five years; in spite of reputedly the best of information, combined with an unquenchable optimism, he won no fortune from the turf.

He married Miss Ellen O’Connell of Melbourne, who predeceased him by some years; a son, Mr. Sydney Hilary Allen, the only child, survives.

There appears to be little place today for Syd. Allen’s methods of passing on the surgical torch. They are as dead as the dodo; yet there are some who believe that our profession is the poorer. Allen was a kind and generous spirit, whose name the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne, is proud to have included in its Book of Remembrance.

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