Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

OWENS Desmond Henry CStJ MB BS FRACGP FACEM MACEP

1936 – 2010

Desmond Henry Owens was born at West Croydon, South Australia, on 15th February 1936. He was the eldest child of Henry Robert Owens and Doris Emma May, nee Alexander. His parents were hard working, probably what one would term “ordinary Australians”. His mother was a product of her time staying at home to care for the family. His father was a taxi driver and later, served in the RAAF, as a leading aircraftsman in Borneo, during WW2. After the war he was employed at the Parafield Air Base as an air craft maintenance technician until he retired due to ill health. Owens had three siblings, Rhonda, Robert, and Wayne. Owens attended the Henley Beach Primary School and Thebarton Boys Technical School, here he gained his Intermediate Certificate with a credit in Geography. A school guidance officer told Owens that he should pursue a manual job, and that he was not capable of anything greater. This comment stayed with Owens all his life, always spurring him on to always achieve more. He became a technician in training with the Department Of Civil Aviation, in 1953.  He returned to secondary school to matriculate, in 1958, and gained a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Adelaide. During his matriculation studies Owens related how he would be invited to the teachers’ tea room to have a cigarette with them during recess, being a similar age to many of them.  He began his medical studies at the University of Adelaide in 1959. During this time he continued to work as a technician with the Department of Civil Aviation in the university holidays, working in places such as Daly Waters, Tennant Creek and Katherine.  He was active in student affairs, being the student representative for each year and convening the first Australian Medical Student Society convention in Adelaide in 1963. Owens had been called up for National Service Training in the RAN and attached to HMAS Torrens, Port Adelaide, in November 1955, and remained at HMAS Torrens until 1960. He transferred to the RAN Volunteer Reserve, in 1961, until he was granted a cadetship in the medical undergraduate scheme, in 1962, as sub-lieutenant for the remainder of his university studies. He married Janice Jocelyn Norris, a nurse academic, at St. Columbus Church, Hawthorn, Adelaide, in 1963. She is the daughter of Albert Roy Norris, a farmer and Eugenie Edith Norris. They were to have seven children.  Owens graduated MB BS, in 1964, and completed his resident year at TQEH in 1965.

Owens began his active service in the RAN, in 1966, at the rank of surgeon lieutenant. He held several appointments during that year including; SMO on HMAS Stuart and at HMAS Kuttabul medical centre on Garden Island, Sydney. His first posting in Vietnam was as SMO on HMAS Vampire, in the Far East Strategic Reserve (RN), on Fleet Service in South East Asia and Vietnam. He had a variety of attachments during this year, including; the Royal Navy Medical Family Services in Singapore and as SMO to 20 Commando, Singapore, SMO Surgical Services, Philippine General Hospital, Manilla, the Evacuation Hospital, with the US Army in Incheon, Republic of Korea and was beach medical master, amphibious landing, Vung Tau, South Vietnam. He returned to Australia and was posted at SMO, HMAS Penguin and at Balmoral Naval Base, in 1968.  He returned to South Vietnam on HMAS Brisbane, in 1969, and then attached to the US 7th Fleet, Pacific Command, South Vietnam. He was then detached for duty with the United States Navy medical support authority at Da Nang followed by naval medical support, US Marine Corps, 1 Corps SVN. During this time he gained medical and surgical experience in general surgery, neurosurgery, cardio-vascular surgery, hyperbaric medicine, aviation medicine and emergency medicine. He was promoted to surgeon lieutenant commander, in 1970 and posted to 1 Aust FdHosp, in Vung Tau. Owens again was detached with the US Army, and also to the RAN clearance diving teams and helicopter flights in SVN. He returned as SMO at Balmoral Hospital in late 1970 and completed combat surgery with the US Armed Forces and postgraduate advanced neurosurgery.  Owens resigned his commission in December 1972 and transferred to the RAN emergency reserve. During his years of service he was always highly thought of by both American and Australian colleagues. Additionally, he volunteered for shore duties to villages in the mountains of the Philippines, and in South Korea. He was issued with the Australian Service Medal –Vietnam, the Australian National Service Medal with clasp, Service Medal – the Republic of South Vietnam. He was also awarded by the US Army; the Combat Medical Award, the Air Medal, Flight Surgeon (In Command) and the Parachute Award.

After short periods in a general practice in Bathurst and at the RGH, Daw Park, Adelaide, Owens volunteered to join a relief mission, in 1974, to Ethiopia as a Team Leader with the Red Cross. Owens was stationed at Gewani in the Awash Valley while his brother, Robert, was at Borena in the mountains. Ethiopia was in the grip of an extended drought with the village people suffering from a variety of illnesses and traumas e.g. hippopotamus bites. Due to the current political turmoil, Owens had difficulties with supplies, with getting and retaining local help, and with vehicle reliability,. He was awarded the Red Cross Medal for Meritorious Service for his time in Ethiopia. Owens returned to Adelaide, in late 1974, he commenced work at TQEH. During his tenure at the hospital he was instrumental in the development of the new emergency department, and became its director in 1980. He helped establish the College for Emergency Medicine, and became a Foundation Fellow and Foundation Censor in Chief for the college. He undertook overseas educational tours as well as being a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Adelaide. He resigned from TQEH in 1987 and took up a post at Campbelltown Hospital in NSW. He then worked for the Helicopter Recue Service, SLSA in NSW. This was a position that he enjoyed immensely but in 1991 he had a stroke that prevented him from continuing with the Helicopter Rescue Service. He persevered to regain some of his previous capabilities. He read the dictionary from cover to cover, the family helping him with pronunciations. His courage and persistence enabled him to return to a general practice in Campbelltown, in 1992 and later to a part time position in ICU at the Mater Hospital in Townsville. The tragedy for Owens was that his career ambitions in medicine were no longer attainable. Throughout his career, he gave unstintingly of his time and expertise to the St John Ambulance Service starting with the cadets when he was fifteen years old and rising through the ranks to District Surgeon.

He provided rescue and first aid when a tornado went through Mosman, NSW in 1967, and he attended both the cyclone in Darwin, in 1974, and the Brooklyn Train Disaster, in 1990. He was made a Fellow of the Institute for Ambulance Officers (Australia) in 1987. For his service with St John Ambulance, received the Order of St John Long Service medal with five bars. He became a member of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and a Commander of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1984.  He loved fine arts and was an accomplished painter in oils, water colours and pencil and charcoal sketching, as well as mastering calligraphy. Even after his stroke he regained much of that skill and continued to attend classes and paint until his last few months. His other past time was to paint miniature model soldiers very precisely in the colours of the Napoleonic era. Owens was a loving and devoted family man and derived much joy from his children. He had several more strokes after the initial one, each one depleting his abilities just that little bit more. Desmond Henry Owens died at home in Razorback on June 21st 2010.  He was survived by his wife Jan and his children; David Leith Owens, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Richard Henry Owens, Daniel Gareth Owens, Thomas Edward Owens, Samuel Charles, Georgina Mariel Rayner and Susannah Cara Owens and seventeen grandchildren and  two great grandchildren.