Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

A member of Maitland's Hollywood medical family - his father was a doctor; his maternal grandfather was a doctor and his brother-in-law was a doctor. Born in 1916, Thomas Desmond Hollywood was the youngest of three children of Dr James Joseph Hollywood and his wife Adele (nee Power). Known as Desmond, he had three sisters, Sheilagh (who served with the Australian Army Womens' Medical Service), Moira and Dierdre.

His father migrated to Australia from Ireland in 1908 and soon after joined the practice of Dr William Dudley Power at Maitland, New South Wales. In 1912, following Power's death, Hollywood took over the medical practice and married Power's daughter. With the outbreak of World War I Dr Hollywood served with the Australian Army Medical Corps in Egypt during 1915-16. 

Desmond Hollywood's mother died from infuenza during the Spanish 'flu pandemic in 1919 and in 1922 James Hollywood married his sister-in-law, Molly Power.

From a strong Irish Catholic family, he was a boarder at St Ignatius College, Riverview where he excelled both academically and on the sporting field. He was a member of the college’s 1st XV rugby team in 1934. He then undertook studies in medicine at the University of Sydney and was also prominent in university sports. He was a member of the Eight that won the Australian Intervarsity Rowing Race in Tasmania in 1938 and a forward in the University 1st XV that won the Sydney Rugby Union premiership in 1941. For his efforts he was awarded University Blues in 1938 and 1941.

A resident of St Johns College at the University of Sydney, Thomas Desmond Hollywood graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine in 1942. In 1943 he enlisted in the A.I.F. and was assigned to the 2/32nd Battalion as the Regimental Medical Officer and served overseas during the Borneo campaign in 1945. Following his discharge in 1946, Hollywood returned to the University of Sydney to complete his Bachelor of Surgery and worked in his father's practice.

Whilst studying in Sydney he met Mary Louise Fowler (1925-2995) of Sunshine, Victoria who worked for Naval Intelligence in the Navy Office at Victoria Barracks. They married in June 1947 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. His best man was Wing Commander Peter Anison Parker, whilst his sister Dierdre was bridesmaid. The couple were to have three children.

After briefly living in Maitland, Dr Hollywood and his wife relocated to Melbourne in mid 1948. In 1951 he spent six months working at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford with Dr John Chassar Moir, Professor  of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Oxford University before returning to pactice in Melbourne and working at the Mercy Hospital in East Melbourne.

Dr Thomas Desmond Hollywood died at Toorak, Victoria on 19 November 1979.