biographies

Drevermann, Ernest Barclay (1913 - )

Born
1913
Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Medical Practitioner and Resuscitationist

Details

The items transcribed below were written by Dr Grayton Brown, Dame Ella Macknight, Dr. John L. Frew and Prof Sir Lance Townsend and were published in the Medical Journal of Australia, 24 September 1974 and 23 September 1974.


ERNEST BARCLAY DREVERMANN
(1949 - 1974)

Barclay Drevermann was born in the East Gippsland Town of Bairnsdale in 1913. My acquaintance with him began on our first day as pupils at the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School. As is so often the case when two new boys arrive at a school together, an immediate sympathetic relationship began. This relationship persisted until the day of his death.

Barclay Drevermann was an aesthete, a magnificent pianist, had no interest in games, and regarded all scientific experiments in laboratories with distaste. It was therefore strange that I, who was so committed to sports of all descriptions and was fascinated by laboratory work, should strike up such an intimate friendship with him, or perhaps this was one of the reasons why. We paired off for all laboratory work at school and throughout our medical student days. It was with good humoured annoyance I found at the end of our first university year that Barclay Drevermann obtained the exhibition in Natural Philosophy whereas I, who had done all the practical work, was only the runner-up. During our two years of anatomy dissection sessions, Barclay was content to turn over the pages of Cunningham’s textbooks and smoked furiously and constantly whilst I wielded the scalpel. It became apparent during the three clinical tuition years that Barclay’s extreme compassion for sick people led him to believe that he could never undertake active procedural treatment of patients which may involve them in pain. After graduation his fears were somewhat ameliorated by his association with that great teacher, Dr. W.D. (later Sir William) Upjohn, who was subsequently to become a guide, philosopher and friend to Barclay for the rest of his life. It was, therefore, fortunate that Barclay Drevermann was able to become involved in the second year after his graduation with the then embryonic discipline of resuscitation, which appealed to his compassionate nature.

There was a gap of six years in our friendship when I served in the European and Pacific theatres of war, whilst he spent his time as the guest of the Japanese on the Burma railroad, but there will be others who can speak of his devotion to his fellow men during this period.

From the end of the war until his death, Barclay Drevermann became a unique and almost saintly servant of mankind, particularly those who were fortunate enough to have his services when desperately ill. No less fortunate were surgeons, obstetricians and even physicians, many of whom felt they could not practice in safety without his presence. The patients who were fortunate enough to be under his care worshipped him. Their only complaint was that he embarrassed them by undercharging for his services. In conveying their complaints to him in this regard, his answer was simple and I quote, "the more they require of my services the less able, as a rule, are they to afford to pay for it".

His services to the Red Cross Transfusion Unit will, I am sure, be better described by those who worked with him there.

Barclay Drevermann was a giant in the history of the medical profession in Melbourne since Batman founded it and it is my belief that he will remain so, long beyond the memory of those of us who were fortunate enough to work with him. His wife Betty was a source of constant strength to a man who devoted his whole existence to the service of his fellow man and without her he would not have been able to accomplish this. My wife and I regard it an honour for having been responsible for bringing Betty and Barclay together in the delightful setting of Healesville during one of our university vacations. Medicine in Melbourne owed a deep gratitude to Betty and her daughter Anne, for being able to support Drev during the period of his full flight as a resuscitator, both physically and mentally, of his patients. Our deepest sympathy goes out to them. Barclay Drevermann will linger on in the memories of his colleagues and his patients for the rest of their lives.
(Dr. Grayton Brown)


It is a privilege to pay tribute to Barclay Drevermann’s work in the field of blood transfusion and resuscitation. My first contact with "Drev" was early in 1939 when he was working in the Hall Institute and was concerned with the development of storage methods for blood in connection with the first blood bank in Australia. The Red Cross Society was associated with this development through its blood donor service.

After war broke out, Drev was involved in the blood grouping of members of the armed services and in the development of the Emergency Red Cross Blood Donor Service. He was a member of the Red Cross Transfusion Committee which was set up in the early days of the war. He succeeded Stanley Williams in charge of the army serum unit which bled donors to produce serum for use in the armed forces. However, he was not satisfied to remain at home and soon got himself released from this work for active service abroad. Even at this date, at a meeting of the Blood Transfusion Committee, it was recorded that a very great deal of the development of the Blood Transfusion Service should be attributed to the courteous and efficient treatment donors had always received from Dr Drevermann. I remember that the donors with difficult veins were specially kept for him.

After demobilization, he entered the clinical field of blood transfusion and resuscitation, making a unique name for himself as a consultant. His clinical judgement was superb and he always was available when colleagues asked for his help with their patients. He developed a very large private practice, being called to hospitals all over the greater Melbourne area, as well as devoting a lot of time to the Royal Melbourne Hospital at first as research resuscitation officer and later as honorary resuscitationist. He habitually worked longer and more irregular hours than any doctor I have known. Nursing and medical staff had absolute confidence in his judgement and ability. They also had a great respect for his orders. Woe betide any who disobeyed Drev’s specific instructions about patients, for he would tell them his opinion in no uncertain terms. To patients he was always sympathetic and kind. Barclay Drevermann played a large part in the postwar development of the Victorian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service. In 1946, he was appointed Assistant Director and later Honorary Deputy Director. Dr. Lucy Bryce, who was instrumental in founding the Service in 1929, was then the Honorary Director of the Service. On the appointment of a full-time Director in 1954, Drev became honorary consultant to the Service. The years from 1946 on saw the Blood Transfusion Service expand from the annual provision of 13,000 pints of blood to 150,000 in 1973. Drev’s knowledge and experience in the field of resuscitation made his advice invaluable to the Red Cross Blood Transfusion Committee which he rejoined in 1946. He was Chairman of the Committee from 1970 onwards and was a member of the Executive of the Council of the Victorian Division of the Australian Red Cross Society. He was also a member of National Red Cross Blood Transfusion Committee.

A bald recital of his work does not give a true picture of the man himself - a man of integrity and of high ideals with infinite kindness to the suffering.
(Dame Ella Macknight)


Under John Bolton’s stimulus, his investigative work as a resident at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in protein absorption, extra-renal uraemia and ascorbic acid, led to his advice being sought on nutritional requirements for the Services as well as resuscitative methods in the early stages of the war.

He joined 13 A.G.H. as a physician with Bruce Hunt and Bill Bye, combining general duties with advice on fluid and electrolyte replacement. On being taken prisoner-of-war, he advised on possible sources of essentials, particularly vitamin B and vitamin A to be used not only prophylactically but also therapeutically. He joined a special medical force recruited to combat a cholera epidemic on the Thai-Burma railway and served along most of the length of that railway line. At one time he was the only white man looking after a 3,000-bed coolie hospital. His only books at this time were the Bible and Levine’s "Cardiology", with the result that on returning to the main prisoner-of-war group late in 1944 he presented a teasing problem to the padres because of his verbatim knowledge of the former. This trait continued after his return to practice, particularly in church hospitals. This period by himself must have presented enormous strain, but it is a measure of his quality of selfless service that the reception by his Japanese group on his return to the main p.o.w. camp was a impressive as that given to a visiting Nippon general.

His lean frame suggested frailty but it was indeed like tensile steel or whipcord. The name of "Drev" or "Shadow", as he was called, was loved and respected by his patients, whether coolie, Nippon or prisoner-of-war, and he was remembered particularly by his own men with admiration for his personality and his capacity for selfless untiring service.
(Dr. John L. Frew)


I first met Barclay Drevermann in February, 1917, when we began school at the Bairnsdale State School; he was just four years old. We sat at the same desk throughout our primary school education and again at the Bairnsdale High School until we both obtained our Leaving Certificates and matriculated in 1927. He was then 15½ and left Bairnsdale to do Leaving Honours at Melbourne Grammar. He rejoined me at the Medical School in 1931; I had begun the course a year earlier and we qualified a year apart. However, we were both residents at Trinity College, so that our friendship had spanned 20 years before we parted for the first time. During this time, although we were rivals at school, we were inseparables both at work and during the weekends and were closer friends than brothers could ever be.

During the war we did not see each other, for, while he was a guest of the Emperor, I was fortunately serving in His Majesty’s Navy. When I returned to Australia in 1948, Barclay - I was the only one who called his by his first name - was already established as a resuscitationist, and private obstetricians were using him extensively. He saved many lives form both ante-partum and post-partum haemorrhage. It was his availability day and night and in weekends that made consultants bless him, because the problems of accidental haemorrhage and collapse form hypofibrinogenaemia could occur at any time, and it was an exceptional patient that he was unable to save form death (either immediate or from kidney failure). The problem of post-partum haemorrhage was satisfactorily dealt with by quickly cross-matching blood to replace loss. At the same time, as resuscitation officer at The Royal Women’s Hospital, he provided the same service for public patients.

I consider his contribution to obstetrics a major one; he was always on call and always seemed understanding of the obstetrician’s difficulties when he arrived in the labour ward. Quickly, with his unique clinical judgement, he would assess the situation and commence treatment, which to my recollection seems often to have been outstandingly successful.

He was a giant in the history of the medical profession in Victoria, and it is not to the credit of my specialty that we failed to honour him in his lifetime as many other Colleges and Associations did.

Our friendship lasted until his death.
(Professor Sir Lance Townsend)

Archival/Heritage Resources

Royal Women's Hospital Archives

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

Prepared by: Robyn Waymouth

Created: 28 September 2006, Last modified: 26 November 2006