SH07 LOCH NESS SAS AND THE FIRST SURGEON IN PARADISE

Abstract

Robert Kenneth Wilson was born in Madagascar in 1899, the son of a Scottish missionary doctor. As a boy he was raised by his elder sister and developed a keen interest in natural history. He served in the first world war before studying medicine at Cambridge. He married Gwen Gulliver, an Australian in 1924. They had two sons. In 1926 he gained his FRCSEd and set up practice in London. During the 1930’s he was a court expert in ballistics together with Lord Gerrard Burrard. He wrote a definitive textbook on Automatic Pistols which was published during World War II. In 1933 he took the photo of the Loch Ness Monster which was only admitted to be a hoax in 1992. In 1939 he walked out of his practice, rejoined the Royal Artillery but in 1942 joined the elite SAS. He was decorated in Holland (orange order) and France (croix de guerre) before being parachuted into Borneo with Australian troops in 1945 to serve in Z force with SEMUT 2. In 1950 he went to PNG as the first fully qualified surgeon and was posted to Rabaul (1950–53) and Port Moresby (1953–56). He is remembered by his anaesthetist and nurses as an excellent general surgeon who could turn his hand to anything, though his results with thoracic surgery were probably suboptimal. In addition to surgery he was an expert fisherman and shot. He died in 1969 of oesophageal cancer. He served with distinction in every phase of his life.