Way, Neville James (1924 - 2018)
by
 
Belinda Sharpless

Asset Name
E009502 - Way, Neville James (1924 - 2018)

Title
Way, Neville James (1924 - 2018)

Author
Belinda Sharpless

Identifier
RCS: E009502

Publisher
The Royal College of Surgeons of England

Publication Date
2018-11-19
 
2018-11-27

Subject
Medical Obituaries

Description
Obituary for Way, Neville James (1924 - 2018), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Language
English

Source
IsPartOf Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Date of Birth
16 March 1924

Place of Birth
Boulder, Western Australia, Australia

Date of Death
13 June 2018

Occupation
General surgeon

Titles/Qualifications
MB BS Adelaide 1948
 
FRCS 1953
 
FRACS 1955

Details
Neville James Way was a consultant general surgeon at the Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia. He was born on 16 March 1924 in Boulder, Western Australia, the son of Inman Way, a general practitioner in Boulder and Kalgoorlie. He was educated at Eastern Goldfields High School, concentrating more on sport then academia, leaving in 1942. Neville had an unremarkable service career in the Royal Australian Navy and resumed his medical studies at Adelaide University in 1944, where he won the Lister prize for surgery in 1947 and the Gosse medal for ophthalmology in 1948. He was the top medical student in his final year, becoming a third-generation doctor. During his medical studies, he played Australian rules football for Norwood from 1944 to 1950 and represented South Australia from 1944 to 1949. He was runner up in the Magarey medal in 1947, awarded to the fairest and best player in the South Australian National Football League. Neville was a surgical trainee at the Royal Adelaide Hospital from 1949 to 1952 and an anatomy tutor, then spent two years training in England. He passed the FRCS in 1953 and worked as a senior registrar in south east Kent. In 1955, he returned to Australia to marry his English wife, Margaret Helen Thomson, passed the FRACS, became an honorary staff member of the Royal Perth Hospital and commenced private practice. He continued part-time private practice and as a visiting surgeon at the Royal Perth Hospital until 1989. During this time, he was also chairman of the department of general surgery. He taught many medical students who later became leading surgeons in Perth. He always felt proud of his teaching and being able to pass on his own knowledge and experience to junior doctors. During Neville’s working life, he was a member of West Australian Turf Club and later became vice chairman (1980 to 1988) then chairman (from 1988 to 1990). He also played squash, was a keen fisherman and was at his happiest whilst fishing and camping at Ningaloo reef and the Abrolhos Islands or gardening and attending to his roses. Neville and Margaret had one daughter, Belinda and three grandchildren, Melissa, Michael and Tim. Two of his grandchildren continued in the family tradition and are currently doctors in Queensland; the third is an economist with Deloitte. Following Margaret’s death, three years before Neville, he learnt to cook, wash, clean and shop, totally new experiences for him. He was very determined and lived independently in the family home until he died of a cardiac arrest on 13 June 2018, two days after being admitted to his second home, the Royal Perth Hospital. He was 94.

Sources
Royal Perth Hospital Emeritus Consultant biographies Vol 1 [https://rph.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Files/Hospitals/RPH/About%20us/History/emeritus-consultant-biographies-vol-1.pdf](https://rph.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Files/Hospitals/RPH/About%20us/History/emeritus-consultant-biographies-vol-1.pdf) – accessed 27 October 2018
 
Wikipedia Neville Way [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Way](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Way) – accessed 27 October 2018

Rights
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England

Collection
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Format
Obituary

Format
Asset

Asset Path
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599