Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

MAYO John ChristianMB BS FRCS Ed FRACS FCRANZ

1891-1955

John Christian Mayo was born on the 4th August 1891 in Adelaide South Australia. He was the youngest of the seven children of a civil engineer George Gibbes Mayo and his wife Henrietta Mary, nee Donaldson. Mayo was grandson of Dr George Mayo, the first South Australian to receive the FRCS, who had arrived in Australia in 1837.  His grandmother was Maria Gandy, the mistress of Colonel William Light, who married George Mayo after Light’s death in 1839. Mayo attended St Peter’s College and was in the School Cadets from 1907.  He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and graduated in 1913. He completed his residency from 1914-15 at the Adelaide Hospital.

Mayo was commissioned in the AMF in November 1914 and allotted to 76 Inf Bn. He enlisted in the AIF on the 4th March 1915 and posted as a captain in the AAMC. He was 23 years old, single, 5ft 10ins, 154lbs and his father, of 47 Melbourne St, North Adelaide, was named as his next of kin.  He was posted to the Sea Transport Service and embarked on the Orsova in July 1915 with the other MOs posted to the Kanowna, and joined the ship at Alexandria. Mayo sailed with her for the round trip to Australia and back. After arriving in Cairo in February 1916 he was posted to 2 AGH. He went to France with the Hospital in March 1916, and served at Wimereux until August 1916, at which time he was detached to 2 FdAmb, which was then heavily engaged on the Somme.  He returned to 2 AGH in October, only to be sent back to 2 FdAmb in December after a short leave. At the beginning of 1917 he spent three months as RMO of 6 Bn, and then a month with 5 Bn. He was promoted major in February 1917, and attached briefly to 1 Div Train and 56 CCS.  He was recalled to England in July 1917 and appointed SMO of No 1 Command Depot at Parkhouse. He moved to Sutton Veny in October. At the end of the war he was ‘Brought to Notice’, and granted three months study leave, which he managed to stretch to six. His appointment in the AIF was terminated on the 14th January 1920 in the 4th MD. Mayo was issued with the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Mayo returned to Australia in September, and he entered general practice at Lameroo; later working in Moonta and Glen Osmond. He then decided on a surgical career. He was appointed an honorary surgeon at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital in 1928. However his interest soon turned towards radiology, and he became an honorary assistant radiologist and radiotherapist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1933. He held this position until his death in 1955. He set up a private radiology practice on North Terrace in the mid-thirties. He was a Foundation member of the College of Radiologists of Australia and New Zealand in 1949 (since 1998 titled the RANZCR). John Christian Mayo died 27th September 1955. Mayo’s eldest sister Helen was the second woman to study medicine at the University of Adelaide, although she was also required to complete her studies at the University of Melbourne due to the ‘Adelaide Hospital Row’. She became an eminent paediatrician. His brother Herbert became a Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia. Another brother George Elton Mayo was the famous industrial psychologist and organisation theorist.   His nephew Lieutenant Eric Mayo was killed during WW2 when he went down with the HMAS Sydney in 1941.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australia, who Served in World War 1. 

Verco, Summers, Swain, Jelly. Open Books Howden, Adelaide 2014. 

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD