Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Asset Name:
E006268 - Worcester, Reginald George (1903 - 1972)
Title:
Worcester, Reginald George (1903 - 1972)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E006268
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2014-10-31
Subject:
Description:
Obituary for Worcester, Reginald George (1903 - 1972), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Worcester, Reginald George
Date of Birth:
13 September 1903
Place of Birth:
Omeo, Victoria, Australia
Date of Death:
1 March 1972
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
ED Australia 1945
MRCS and FRCS 1937
MB BS Melbourne 1927
MD 1930
DGO 1932
MRCOG 1934
FRCOG 1949
FRACS 1938
Details:
Born on 13 September 1903 at Omeo, Victoria, Australia, son of R J Worcester, he was educated at Melbourne High School, where he won two leaving scholarships and was a leading lacrosse player and the best rifle-shot, and at the University of Melbourne where he won his lacrosse blue and graduated, with first-class honours in gynaecology and obstetrics, in 1927.
After holding resident posts at the Melbourne Hospital and the Women's Hospital he came to England in 1934, worked at St Charles's Hospital and the Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, and gained the MRCOG in 1934 and the Surgical Fellowship in 1937.
On his return to Melbourne he was appointed to the staff of the Women's Hospital, and was elected FRACS in 1938. His ten years' service in his hospital was interrupted by the second world war, throughout which he was actively engaged in the Australian Army Medical Services, in casualty clearing stations and in command of field ambulances in Borneo and Morotai, then as Assistant Director of Medical Services for the Northern Territory at Darwin, and finally as Colonel in command of 2/9 Army General Hospital; he was awarded the Efficiency Decoration for his war work. Unfortunately he fell victim to persistent amoebiasis and disabling allergies, in spite of which he maintained a busy and useful career for more than twenty years after his return to civil practice.
He was gynaecologist to Prince Henry's Hospital 1946-63, and tutor in obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Melbourne for eleven years. He represented Victoria on the Australian Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists between 1948 and 1958 and was elected a Fellow of that College in 1949. His favourite recreation was golf.
Worcester married, while in England in 1934, Jean, daughter of C Kerville, who survived him with a son and two daughters. He died on 1 March 1972, aged sixty-eight, after five years illness following a severe cerebral stroke, the ultimate result of his wartime disabilities.
Sources:
*Med J Aust* 1973, 1, 770 by Arthur Machen Hill, with portrait
Information from Mrs Worcester and Professor K F Russell FRACS
Machen Hill's memoir quotes from the Melbourne High School journal *The Old Unicornian*, June 1972, and acknowledges the help of ten named colleagues
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/E006000-E006999/E006200-E006299
Media Type:
Unknown