SIR DOUGLAS SHIELDS (1876–1952) A FORGOTTEN AUSTRALIAN SURGEON

Abstract

The remarkable and colourful career of Sir Douglas Shields of Melbourne is unparalleled among Australian surgeons of his generation: Murray Morton describes it as a romance. He graduated in 1897 and was, in turn, a country general practitioner, the principal medical officer of an overcrowded plague-ship bringing home soldiers from the Boer War, senior surgeon of St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne then, in London, surgeon-in-chief of his own hospital converted to the 'Hospital for Wounded Officers' with promotion to the ranks of brigadier-general and rear-admiral, then knighted and, finally, a consultant surgeon with private hospitals in Park Lane and in Cannes, and with patients largely drawn from the aristocracy, the rich and the famous. His name is now virtually forgotten in Australia but, for many years after he left Melbourne in 1912, stories used to be told about his career and experiences, many of which had little basis in fact, and even the two brief biographical accounts of his career by Murray Morton and Ormond Smith contradict each other. This paper will, I hope, help to preserve the memory of Sir Douglas Shields whom Ormond Smith considered 'one of the brightest ornaments of the Medical School of the Melbourne University'.