Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

MUNDAY Neill Horace MB BS FRCS

1894-1955

Neill Horace Munday was born on 16th March 1894, in Marryatville, South Australia, the fifth child and fourth son of Fred Munday and Elizabeth, nee O’Neill of County Clare, Ireland. Munday was initially named as Horace Munday but he changed it to Neill Horace Munday after WW1. Munday was educated at Marryatville High School and later Muirden College. He topped the commercial examinations at the age of 16 before enrolling in medicine at the University of Adelaide in 1916.  Munday enlisted in the first AIF, as a private soldier in the AAMC, on the 30th May 1916, while he was still a medical student. He was posted to No. 5 Section Sea Transport Nursing Staff and travelled back and forth between Australia and the United Kingdom, as a nurse/medical orderly, for the next three years. He was discharged at the rank of sergeant, with influenza on 22 February 1919. Munday resumed his medical studies at the University of Adelaide in 1919 and graduated MB BS in 1924. It was at this time he changed his name by deed poll to Neill (derived from his mother’s maiden name) Horace Munday. During his university years he played intervarsity lacrosse and was captain of the University B Cricket Team. After serving his resident year at the Adelaide Hospital he entered general practice at Murray Bridge from 1926 until May 1935. He married Dorrie Eva Ellershaw in October 1925. She was the daughter of Frederic Ellershaw and Alice Mary, nee Evens. Munday and his wife had two children; Mary born in 1927 and, Robert born in 1930. In order to further his studies in surgery, Munday went with his family to the United Kingdom in May 1935. After a short stay in London with his elder brother William, Munday decided to move to Edinburgh where he spent nine months studying in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary under Professor John Fraser who was Regius Professor of Surgery at Edinburgh University at the time.  He passed the Fellowship Examination in Surgery in July 1936. Munday and his family returned to Adelaide, in 1937, to enter a general practice partnership in the Unley area of Adelaide with two brothers, Drs Herbert Henry Ernest Russell and Ernest Albert Harold Russell.  Munday was the surgeon in the group. After several years with the Russell brothers Munday moved into his own private surgical practice with consulting rooms in the Bank of New South Wales Building, in Adelaide.

Munday joined the army again at the onset of WW2.  He was gazetted as a captain in the AAMC and was a recruiting medical officer during the early part of the war. He would have undertaken the medical examination of recruits joining the military in Adelaide.  His age precluded him from further involvement in the military, and there are no additional records of his service.

Munday was appointed an honorary clinical assistant, in 1939, at the RAH and on the 1st   December 1942, he was promoted to the position of honorary assistant surgeon to Sir Henry Newland and held this position until 3rd January 1946.  While operating at Memorial Hospital North Adelaide in October 1950, Munday suffered a major stroke, and it was feared he would die shortly. However, showing great courage over the next six months, he recovered enough to walk with the aid of a stick but was never able to return to work. Neill Horace Munday died, on the 19th October 1955 at the age of 61, after a long illness, survived by his wife, Dorrie, and two children, Mary and Robert, an obstetrician and gynaecologist.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears III: Medical Practitioners South Australia, who Served in World War 2. 

Swain, Jelly, Verco, Summers. Open Books Howden, Adelaide 2019. 

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD

"...16360 Corporal Neill Horace Munday, born Marryatville, South Australia. Enlisted Australian Army Medical Corp 30 May 1916. Served No.5 Section Sea Transport Staff. Post war served as doctor at Murray Bridge for 10 years before qualifying FRCS London, after which he established his practice on North Terrace, Adelaide." - SOURCE (collections.slsa.sa.gov.au)