biographies

Anderson, Bruce Hunter (1912 - 1972)

Born
25 March 1912
Orbost, Victoria, Australia
Died
23 January 1972
Occupation
Gynaecologist, Medical Practitioner and Obstetrician

Details

Transcription of obituary believed to have been written by Dr. Colin Macdonald. Published in Medical Journal of Australia, 1 July 1972 and the "Book of Remembrance", Royal Women's Hospital, 1972.


BRUCE ANDERSON
(1948 - 1968)

Just as his boyhood environment was varied by the demands of his father’s profession, so was the later personal medical destiny of Bruce Anderson foreshadowed by his family’s history of terminal coronary occlusion in great-grandfather, grandfather and father.

Bruce Hunter Anderson was born on 25th March 1912 at Orbost on the Snowy River, the second child and only son of William Routledge Anderson, a civil engineer, and Marion Sophia Hunter Anderson. When Bruce was two, the family moved to Colac in south-western Victoria where he later attended the local state school. At the age of 10 he was taken to Brisbane to live, his father having been appointed as the City Engineer. Here for one year he attended the Eagle Junction state school and then entered the Brisbane Boys’ College which was at that time in the neighbouring suburb of Clayfield.

During his school years he often spent holidays with friends at Cluden, a property some miles from Gladstone, where he strengthened his appreciation of the country and its outdoor life by learning to ride, to fish and to shoot. Philately provided a contrast, while piano lessons were appropriate in a family where father sang, mother was an amateur pianist and elder sister was to combine the Associateship of Trinity College of Music, London in piano with qualification as a pharmacist - and initiated what was to be a life-long interest in music, though as a listener and not a performer.

In 1929, the year he matriculated, he became Captain of the School and a member of the first IV in tennis, the first XV in Rugby and the first XI in cricket. During a holiday he also explored the Lamington Plateau on the McPherson Range running between Queensland and New South Wales.

His first academic year was spent in the Science faculty of the University of Queensland and during it his father died of cardiac disease.

Queensland at that stage having no medical faculty it was necessary for those wishing to proceed beyond first year to go to either Sydney or Melbourne; Bruce came to Melbourne and his mother and sister moved down with him, to live first in East St. Kilda and then at "Kotupna" in Swanston Street across from the old Anatomy School of the University of Melbourne.

The Anderson household became a "home from home" for numerous students and here too lived Bruce’s dissecting-room partner and fellow Queenslander, Sydney Sunderland, later to be Professor of Anatomy, Professor of Experimental Neurology, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and a knight. After a couple of years in Carlton the family moved to Royal Parade, Parkville.

While at the University his recreations included more tennis and Rugby and often holidays that took the form of visits to the country, several times in the Lakes Entrance region and once in Tasmania, with Sydney Sunderland.

The Tasmanian trip occurred at the end of the 4th year, when the friends walked more or less across Tasmania from south to north-east. Sir Sydney recollects their exploration beginning in the now popular "tourist" region of the south-west, spreading into the National Park by Mount Field West and the Florentine Valley, and on to the Great West Road whence their eyes turned towards Mount Olympus and the ultimate objective of Cradle Mountain. They approached these latter destinations knowing that no walkers had preceded them in the previous six or seven years, but found after a couple of days on the final leg that the pegs were down and that it was more prudent to deviate to Derwent Bridge, thence returning to civilization at Queenstown on the west coast. Arriving here late at night they slept in the sports pavilion and then returned to Launceston and Melbourne.

Bruce became a Rugby blue, playing as full-back in the University team. In the 1935 Inter-University match in Adelaide he suffered a scalp laceration that necessitated a number of sutures at the (Royal) Adelaide Hospital, after which he accompanied his team-mates to a dance. It is recalled that during this evening Bruce at one stage gave a spirited performance on the drums, an unusual occupation for a diffident man. Present as a reserve on this trip was another friend, now Sir Lance Townsend, later to be the first Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the University of Melbourne, another Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and the best man at Bruce’s wedding.

In early 1936 Bruce graduated as Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery to become a resident medical officer on the staff of the Brisbane General Hospital.

At this stage the ultimate direction of his medical career was considerably influenced by Sydney Sunderland who had already become engaged in academic pursuits at the Melbourne University department of Anatomy, both in the research field and as Senior Lecturer. The anatomist worked late into the night and often sought coffee and conversation with the obstetrical and gynaecological resident staff across the road at the (Royal) Women’s Hospital. In those years "the Women’s" found it preferable not to replace its resident staff en bloc, but rather to take on a new resident (and lose an old one) every seven or eight weeks, so that each raw recruit joined a staff that was otherwise competent and experienced; this policy occasionally made for difficulty in finding available applicants in the middle of the year.

On one such occasion, learning of a vacancy to occur in August 1936, Sydney Sunderalnd suggested to the medical superintendent (D.F. Lawson) that Bruce might be interested; by trunk line it was promptly arranged that he cut short his work in Brisbane and commence training a the Melbourne Women’s Hospital forthwith.

During this year as a resident Bruce worked with B. Milne Sutherland and Edward R. White, the latter also to become a military associate in Malaya many years later. Under the leadership of D.F. Lawson the team comprised R.M. Rome, Charles Hopkins, James Smibert, Alex Sinclair, Mary J. Heseltine, William Hawksworth, J.C. Laver and Lance Townsend.

Some years ago he recalled his resident year as characterized by 36 eclamptics of whom nine died, a 42% perinatal mortality, pre-eclamptics only admitted if proteinuria exceeded one-fifth, the ceaseless struggle against infection both puerperal and post-abortal, a ward full of advanced tuberculosis patients awaiting confinement. He spoke of the manipulative skill of Ivon Hayes and John Green for whom the forceps seemed an extension of the hands, of Arthur Wilson who performed a difficult breech extraction with mathematical precision. Those days saw the commencing application of blood transfusion to obstetric practice, ranging from heroic contributions of their own blood by resident medical officers to the first continuous drip transfusion, given by J.C. Laver, with the help of most of the remaining staff "bleeding" eight members of the Firsts, Seconds and Thirds of the Fitzroy Football Club.

Then followed a year of general practice in Moonee Ponds with M.O. Kent-Hughes, after which Bruce went to the United Kingdom in search of further post-graduate experience in obstetrics and gynaecology. As a start he served as locum tenens in the London area and then joined the resident staff of St. Giles’ Hospital in early 1939, to work for the examination for Membership of the (Royal) College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which he secured in July 1939.

He acted as best man at Sydney Sunderland’s wedding in Oxford, and he enjoyed the beauty of the English spring, especially as seen at Minster Lovell in the Cotswolds. He used to go to concerts with Lance Townsend; together they heard Paul Robeson sing. Other contemporaries from Melbourne also in London included James Smibert and D.F. Lawson; Mrs. Lawson often prepared meals for them all. With the outbreak of war Bruce brought himself back to Australia and enlisted in the Army in 1940, being posted overseas in January 1941. He was promoted to Major, becoming Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services of the 8th Australian Division in Malaya, replacing Glyn White who had also been promoted. With the fall of Singapore he was taken prisoner by the Japanese (1942-45), at first in Changi camp and later in charge of the medical party working on the Burma-Thailand railway.

In the camp his association with Glyn White remained close; four of them shared accommodation and books. Bruce sometimes played the piano and often enjoyed his "Byron’s Poems" or Glyn’s C.J. Dennis. While a guest of the emporer Bruce in his own words "learnt the heights to which men may rise and the depths to which they may fall...". All of them "learnt humility - an appreciation of the simple things in life". His friends feel that he learnt imperturbability.

Returning to Australia in 1945, just skin and bone, Bruce set about his own rehabilitation in gynaecology under the masterful tutelage of L.W. Gleadell at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he gained greatly in clinical confidence and operating dexterity. At the same time he resumed his membership of what was to become the Margaret Street Clinic in Moonee Ponds under the leadership of M.D. Kent-Hughes, and association he was to maintain for the remainder of his life.

In 1948 he was appointed to the Honorary Medical Staff of the (Royal) Women’s Hospital and gained the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. In 1950 he was appointed Honorary Assistant Gynaecologist in Mr. Gleadell’s department as successor to (Dame) Ella Macknight, but surrendered this post in 1951 to Lance Townsend. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1959.

For the rest of his life his work at the Women’s came to assume ever greater importance, at first as out-patient surgeon in the gynaecological unit of D.F. Lawson and then from 1963 as leader of his own unit, his juniors being Vernon Hollyock until 1966 and Ian Johnston until Bruce felt compelled to resign in 1968.

His contribution to the staff was to exemplify the worth of a thoughtful and optimistic attitude, whereby with the cancer patient one must be constantly trying to help – believing that for each patient there was something that could be done and that it must be done well. At his death his colleagues recorded that "it was in this branch of gynaecology that his vast experience was regularly called upon by all members of this staff. His exceptional mental ability to quote literature percentages and journal references never ceased to impress the listener with its accuracy and relevance".

In 1965 Bruce received a travel grant from the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria to enable him to observe the diagnostic and therapeutic methods used in female genital cancer in general, with particular regard to psychological screening, the place of chemotherapy and hormone treatment and the treatment of late stage carcinoma of the cervix. Leaving on his birthday the 14-week trip embraced Canada and the United States, Ireland, England, the continent of Europe and the Far East. He also found time to hire a car to revisit favourite beauty spots in the United Kingdom.

At the end of 1967 the expected coronary occlusion occurred during a busy night. Though it was not a severe one Bruce was advised to limit his professional duties and consequently resigned from his post at the Royal Women’s Hospital on 29th April 1968, his unit being taken over by Barry Kneale, Peter Glenning being appointed to fill the staff vacancy. Bruce was however invited to continue to attend the meetings of the Executive Medical Staff, having been appointed Assistant Gynaecologist to the Radio-Surgical Unit, a position he held until his death.

Through the years of his association with our Hospital Bruce had the contentment and stability that are derived from a happy home with an ideally suitable partner. He had met Margaret Emily Colliver, a double certificated nurse born in Adelaide, they had become engaged and were married at The Scots’ Church, Melbourne on 17th June 1950. At their Essendon home there are two sons and two daughters.

It is natural that a quiet, friendly counsellor of embryo specialists should act as adviser in other spheres. He was a member of the medical and scientific committee of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria until 1964 and from 1970 served on the Board of Management of the Essendon and District Hospital. In 1961 he had become the first chairman of the post-graduate Subcommittee of the Executive Medical Staff of the Royal Women’s Hospital, and with Frank Forster initiated the programme of educative medical lectures which now each year follows the more philosophical Tracy-Maund Memorial Lecture.

Bruce really had that often-claimed attribute, a sense of humour. He was a voracious reader, especially of Australians, often reading far into the night. Music, usually from recordings, was a constant enjoyment in his home. He loved camellias and had a collection of books about them. He did not find time to be a gardener but sometimes startled his family by speculating whether, if he could have had the opportunity to live his life again, he might not have enjoyed being a nurseryman or even a dress designer.

Although his father had been a Master, Bruce evinced no desire to become a freemason, nor was he a member of any clubs.

Being of a happy nature, living a happy life, tempered by the looming prospect of heart disease, made philosophical in the inclemency of prison camp, it is not surprising that Bruce was a sentimentalist. At the time of his marriage he felt that he could expect 15 or 16 years; as this estimated span was drawing to its end he made his first sentimental journey, to recapture the enjoyment of remembered scenic beauty in England. Once the first heart lesion had occurred, he knew that he was living on borrowed time. It was to be his triumph that the earlier estimate proved wrong, there being not 16 but 21 years that he had to live. It is sad that a second sentimental journey, this time to Cluden in Queensland where so much boyhood had been enjoyed, was to have begun on the day of this second and much more severe coronary occlusion, in early January this year. After tantalizing hints that health might ultimately be regained there came embolic complications, the second of them proving fatal on 23rd January 1972.

His funeral service in St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Essendon, was heard by a packed congregation of many creeds, friends, family, colleagues, patients, among whom there were few dry eyes. The grandeur of Bach and Handel was fittingly punctuated by occasional cries of babies in arms brought to bid him farewell. His family need never doubt the esteem and affection in which he was held.

Dr. J. Glyn White writes: With the death of Bruce Hunter Anderson the medical profession lost one of its most highly respected and competent members and I lost one of the greatest friends I have ever had. My association with Bruce commenced in our student days and we remained constant companions to the time of his death.

It was our wartime association which really cemented our friendship when we both worked under the command and guidance of a great Australian, the late Alfred Plumley Derham. What Bruce’s help and his loyalty and comradeship meant to me in those trying and difficult Prisoner of War days could not be expressed in words; it helped to turn what could have been a totally tragic experience into something which in many ways was grand. As a soldier Bruce possessed a keen tactical brain and this was clearly demonstrated by the report he submitted after making an extensive reconnaissance in December 1941 of a number of areas of importance in the evacuation of wounded in the State of Johore. "His report was timely, as it also shed light on general problems of defence and supply..." (Walker, 1953). There is no doubt that had he not been a medical officer he would have made an outstanding commander of combatant troops.

His private and professional life consisted of daily actions of devotion, unselfishness, kindnesses, sympathies, helpful advice to and sacrifices for the good of others, attributes which made a splendid character which Bruce Anderson certainly was. He commanded not only the respect and admiration of all he came in contact with, but at the same time earned their love and affection.

(This account appeared in the Medical Journal of Australia on 1st July 1972,)

Walker, Allan S (1953), "Australia in the War of 1939-45", Series 5, Vol. II, Australian War Memorial, Canberra: 501.

Archival/Heritage Resources

Royal Women's Hospital Archives

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

Prepared by: Robyn Waymouth

Created: 27 September 2006, Last modified: 26 November 2006