Ernest Albert Harold RUSSELL

RUSSELL, Ernest Albert Harold

Service Numbers: Not yet discovered
Enlisted: Not yet discovered
Last Rank: Captain
Last Unit: 3rd Australian General Hospital - WW1
Born: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 24 August 1885
Home Town: Adelaide, South Australia
Schooling: Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, South Australia
Occupation: Medical Practitioner
Died: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 1969, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: North Road Cemetery, Nailsworth, South Australia
Memorials: Adelaide University of Adelaide WW1 Honour Roll, Unley Town Hall WW1 Honour Board
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World War 1 Service

20 May 1915: Involvement Captain, 3rd Australian General Hospital - WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '23' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: RMS Mooltan embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: ''
20 May 1915: Embarked Captain, 3rd Australian General Hospital - WW1, RMS Mooltan, Adelaide

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Biography contributed by Annette Summers

RUSSELL Ernest Albert Harold OBE VD KStJ MB BS

1885-1969

Ernest Albert Harold Russell was born on the 28th August 1885 at Unley South Australia. He was the third son of James Thomas Russell and his wife Susanne Charlotte, nee Bird. He was educated at Prince Alfred College and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide graduating in 1911. At University he was Captain of the successful Inter Varsity Lacrosse team. He completed his residency at the Adelaide Hospital, and was commissioned as a Captain in 1911 in the AAMC reserve. He was posted first to 31 LHFA, and then to 19 FdAmb. He set up practice at Unley and Westbourne Park with his older brother Herbert Henry Ernest Russell.

Russell enlisted in the AIF in May 1915; his father, of St. Raymond’s, Unley Rd Unley was nominated as his next of kin. His service records contain no details of a physical examination on enlistment. He was subsequently posted to 3AGH.  He travelled with the unit to England and on to Lemnos, and remained there throughout the Mediterranean campaign.  He was promoted major in January 1916, and posted to 6 FdAmb. He remained with 2 Div but served at various times with both 7 and 8 FdAmb through the Somme battles of 1916 and for much of 1917. He contracted trench fever in November 1916, and the fever returned twice in 1918. Russell had had a lung abscess as a child, and his oldest brother had died of tuberculosis. He was therefore carefully watched by successive medical boards. No firm diagnosis was made apart from fibrosis of the lung. He was posted to 1 Sanitary Section in September 1917 (which by an anomaly was part of 2 Div), and in October promoted lieutenant colonel and posted back to 3 AGH. One year later he was reviewed, and found unfit for another winter in the field, and invalided back to Australia. He was allowed to proceed via Canada at his own expense, and was discharged from the AIF in February 1919.  Russell was issued with the 1914-15 Star, The British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Russell married Janet Manson Ward of West Payneham on 17th December 1921. They had a daughter and a son.  He remained in the CMF and was CO of 3 FdAmb from 1921-26. He set up practice at “Corowa”, Napier Terrace, Westbourne Park, and from 1920-23 was an honorary obstetrician at the Queen’s Home, and afterwards a consultant. He was an ardent supporter of St John’s Ambulance and the Australian Red Cross Society, and was President of the SA Branch of the BMA in 1943-44.  He loved yachting and was a member of the Royal SA Yacht Squadron. He was appointed OBE in 1949 and a Knight of St John in 1953 for services to the Queen Victoria Hospital. In 1967 his address was 401 The Parade, Kensington Gardens, SA. He died on the 19th May 1969.

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

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