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David McNicol was born on 31st July 1945 in Adelaide.  He was the third child in a family of four children of John (Ian) Robertson McNicol and Sadie, nee Williams. His father had served in the Australian Army in the Middle East and New Guinea during WW2.  His parents separated and, from an early age, he and his siblings lived with his maternal grandparents at Cambridge Terrace, Malvern. McNicol attended Highgate Primary School until the death of his mother due to breast cancer. The four children were split up as a consequence of the loss of their mother.  McNicol was adopted by his godparents, David Williamson McNicol and Margret Elsa, nee Hargrave. His adoptive father had served in the RAAF, during WW2, as a Sunderland pilot seeing action in the Western Atlantic, Mediterranean, and North Africa in RAF squadrons 201 and 230. Following WW2 he became an Australian diplomat, and at the time of McNicol’s adoption was attending the Imperial Defence College in London. Consequently McNicol went to live with his adoptive parents in England, where he became a boarder at Ripley Court Primary School, in Middlesex. He returned Australia as a boarder at the Canberra Grammar School and subsequently Adelaide to study medicine at the University of Adelaide in 1963, graduating MB BS in 1969.

McNicol was called up for National Service during his undergraduate years, which was deferred until he had finished his intern year at the RAH. He was inducted into the Army, in 1970, as a member of the first group of National Service doctors. Initial military training was at 2RTB, Puckapunyal, followed by officer training at Healesville, Victoria. He then volunteered for service in South Vietnam.  Further training followed in Canungra, Queensland. He left for Vietnam in July 1970 and was posted to 8 FdAmb in Nui Dat. McNicol’s medical responsibilities in Vietnam were extensive, providing medical services for the Task Force HQ staff, all Field Force units other than the infantry battalions, and all support units based at 1 ATF, Nui Dat. In addition 8 FdAmb provided the aeromedical evacuation service to the Australian Task Force with 8 FdAmb medics flying on all the ‘dust off’ missions.  McNicol also provided weekly medical care to South Vietnamese villagers, particularly at Phuoc Tinh on the coast of the South China Sea.  During his time in South Vietnam, he relieved Captain Bob Porter, RMO to 7 Bn RAR, for a period. McNicol was based with the 7 Bn RAR HQ. The CO was Lieutenant Colonel Ron Grey and the RSM was WO1 Reg Bandy. Grey later became a Major General and subsequently head of the Australian Federal Police. McNicol’s time with 7 Bn RAR was spent with companies in the field at fire support bases, and at Bn HQ. McNicol returned to Australia and completed his two year fulltime National Service obligation as RMO to 16 LAA at Woodside, South Australia and at HQ Central Command, Keswick Barracks, in Adelaide.

He married Jennifer Jane Archibald in 1971, and they had three children.  McNicol travelled to England, in 1972, to gain his FRCS and was appointed as an anatomy demonstrator in the Anatomy Department at Cambridge University. He passed the FRCS Primary Surgical Examination. He then commenced a surgical career as a senior house officer at Stepping Hill Hospital, Manchester. McNicol subsequently returned to the RAH, in 1974, and took up a position as a general surgical registrar, later moving to the Orthopaedic Advanced Surgical Training Programme.  McNicol was admitted to the FRACS on 24th February 1978. He furthered his orthopaedic career working as a clinical lecturer at the Duchess of Kent Children’s Orthopaedic Hospital, University of Hong Kong, and then as a Research Fellow in Biochemistry at the Joint Diseases Laboratory, Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, Montréal and McGill University, Canada. He gained an MSc from McGill University on 7th November 1979.  McNicol’s MSc thesis was entitled; The isolation and characterisation of proteoglycans from human knee meniscus – an age related study, the first description of its kind published in the world literature. He returned to Adelaide to the ACH and then private practice for a short time.  McNicol was encouraged to return to the ACT working as an Orthopaedic VMO to the ACT Health Authority at the Royal Canberra Hospital.  Here he established a school screening programme for Scoliosis in the ACT and continued his research interests as a Research Fellow at the John Curtin School of Medicine, Australian National University. McNicol, on his return to Canberra, was approached by Major General ‘Digger’ James and Colonel Bill Rogers to provide orthopaedic surgical services to the Duntroon Hospital.  McNicol worked at the Duntroon Medical Centre and Hospital on a weekly basis for many years providing orthopaedic surgical services to ADFA and RMC Cadets, and military personnel of the three services based in and around the ACT.  McNicol developed a busy private practice.  His marriage ended in 1990 and he became a single parent of his three children. He married Janine Margaret Martin in June 1998.  He was deployed to the UN Military Hospital Kamora, Dili, East Timor, in 2000, as a member of the UNTAET Peacekeeping Force at the rank of lieutenant colonel.  The other members of his medical team included Brigadier Brian Pezzutti RAAMC, Commodore Peter Hapersberger RAN, and Wing Commander Chris Verco RAAF. McNicol was issued with the; Active Service Medal 1945 – 1975- Vietnam, the General Service Medal, the Active Service Medal 1976 - East Timor, the Anniversary of National Service Medal 1951-1972, the Vietnam Medal and the Australian Defence Medal. He was also awarded an Australian Defence Force Commendation on 20th June 2008, for his work with the ADF. In part the commendation read: 

Your achievements are of the highest order and exemplify the spirit of the finest traditions of the Defence Health Services and the ADF.

When he returned to Australia from East Timor Australia McNicol served as President of the Australian Orthopaedic Association (2001-2002), having been elected to the Board in 1982 representing the NSW and later the ACT Orthopaedic Group. Over the years McNicol was AOA Editorial secretary and a member of the Executive. He subsequently chaired the Orthopaedic Outreach Fund for 10 years from 2003 to 2013.  During this time McNicol led orthopaedic surgical teams to Timor-Leste one to two times per year working at the Dili National Hospital and later at the Bacau General Hospital.

During his career he was active in medical politics, becoming President of the ACT AMA and sitting on the Federal Council of the AMA.  McNicol was President of the Australian Association of Surgeons 1988 to 1989. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Australian Doctors Fund 1998 to 1992. He was also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 1990.  He was Examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons from 1993 to 1998 and Senior Examiner Orthopaedic Surgery for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons from 1998 to 2001. McNicol was the Senior Australian delegate to the Asia-Pacific Orthopaedic Association from October 2002 to 2007 and the Second Vice President of the Asia-Pacific Orthopaedic Association from 2010 to 2012.  He was a member of the Executive the Asia-Pacific Orthopaedic Association and Chairman of the Finance Committee from 2012 to 2016.  He has received several awards during his professional life including, the American British Canadian Travelling Fellow (1984), the Humanitarian Services Award, Australian Orthopaedic Association (2008), the L. O. Betts Medal for outstanding contributions to Australian Orthopaedics, October 2009, Hamilton Russell Memorial Lecture and Medal (RACS 2009), and was made a Life Fellow of the Australian Orthopaedic Association Research Foundation (2014). David McNicol continues to practice in Canberra.

Sources

Blood, Sweat and Fears II: Medical Practitioners of South Australia on Active Service After World War 2 to Vietnam 1945-1975.

Summers, Swain, Jelly, Verco. Open Book Howden, Adelaide 2016

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD