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DUNSTONE Sydney Morgan Lewis MB BS FRCGP FRACGP

1917- 1990

Sydney Morgan Lewis Dunstone was born on the 22nd March 1917 in Boolaroo Centre, SA. He was the eldest son and the second of five children of Dr Horace Edgar Dunstone and Mary Hilda, nee Hunn. He was educated at St Peter’s College, where he was a member of the school cadets and the University of Adelaide where he graduated MB BS in 1939. He undertook his house surgeon year at the RAH in 1940.  He had a B (commercial) pilot’s licence with over 200 hours of solo flying experience when he applied to join the RAAF in April 1940. He married Denise Condell Carden, in the St Peter’s College Chapel, on 6th May 1941; she was the only daughter of Dr Wilfred Hallon William Carden, a general practitioner, and Flora Amelia, nee Foulger, of 52 Partridge Street, Glenelg, SA. Dr Eric Sims was his best man.

Dunstone enlisted in the RAAF on 22nd July 1940; He was appointed a flight lieutenant on 22nd July 1940, promoted to squadron leader on 1st October 1942 and to wing commander on 1st July 1947. His initial postings, with a single officer daily pay rate of 22s/6d, were to station headquarters, RAAF Laverton, on 22nd July 1940, 1 Recruit Centre, Melbourne on 5th August 1940, 2 Recruit Centre, Perth, WA, on 25th September 1940, and 5 Recruit Centre, Adelaide, on 12th May 1941. He qualified for his pilot’s ‘wings’ which were awarded on 2nd December 1941. During his flying training and his RAAF career, he was to fly many aircraft including the following - Tiger Moth, Avro Anson, Wirraway, Oxford, Kittyhawk, Voltec Vengeance, Boomerang, Auster, Fairchild, Pussmoth, and CAE trainer. He returned to Perth, WA, on 26th December 1941, and had several short-term postings around Australia during 1942; he served with 77 Squadron at RAAF Pearce, RAAF Dunreath, at RAAF Guildford, RAAF Batchelor and RAAF Livingstone.  Finally, he was posted to RAAF Townsville on 26th January 1943 for embarkation to PNG, arriving in Milne Bay on 13th February 1943. He moved, with the squadron, to Goodenough Island on 15th June 1943. He returned to 1 Reserve Personnel Pool, in Townsville, on 30th August 1943. He served, in Adelaide, with 4 Embarkation Depot from 5th September 1943, and then with several RAAF Training Schools in within Australia, from October 1943 until mid-1945; including Mildura, Somers, Kingaroy and Melbourne. Dunstone then returned to South East Asia at Morotai between 5th July 1945 and his return to Adelaide by 17th August 1945.  As a consequence of the death of his father, who was then the Mayor of St Peter’s, on 13 July 1945, he was transferred, at his request, to the reserve with effect from 1st August 1945 so that he could fill the vacancy in his late father’s medical practice. He performed part-time service as Deputy Principal Medical Officer (RAAF), Adelaide, from 26th November 1946 and his retirement from the RAAF on 1st May 1975

Dunstone was an honorary clinical assistant (medicine), at the RAH, in 1946 and a demonstrator in pathology at the University of Adelaide, from 1946 to 1947. He was an RMO at the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in 1950. He returned to Adelaide and took up a practice in the Eastern suburbs and was also an honorary assistant general surgeon at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital, from 1951 to 1953. He passed the MRACGP in 1969 and was appointed FRACGP in 1974. He obtained the FRCGP in 1979. He was an authorised medical examiner for the Department of Transport (Aviation), Civil Aviation Authority (GB), from 1945 until retirement.  He was a member of the Royal Aero Club in SA and president in 1950. He had a particular interest in the North Eastern Community Hospital in Adelaide's eastern suburbs and medical manpower issues particularly concerning general practice obstetrics and surgery. Sydney Morgan Lewis Dunstone died on 4th April 1990 in Walkerville SA. His wife and two sons survived him.

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