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Australia

HOLMES Henry Bertram RANR MB BS

1916-1993

Henry Bertram Holmes was born, on the 17th Dec 1916, at Red Hill SA, a small, Sturt Highway wheat town about 80km south of Port Pirie, alongside the Broughton River at the foot of the Flinders Ranges. He was the eldest son of Reverend Charles Bertram Holmes and Malva Lavern, nee Smith. His grandfather, the Reverend Henry Holmes, a pioneer Methodist minister of the Broughton Mission in Laura, SA. Holmes was educated at Laura Public School and then Jamestown High School where he won the Epworth Scholarship to Prince Alfred College, SA, where he had a brilliant career over the next five years. During this time, he won the Thomas Price scholarship, the Thomas Elder Scholarship, the Melrose Prize and the H.J. Priest Maths Prize and topped the state when he matriculated, in 1935. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and was recommended for the Elder Prize, and, in his final year, the Lister Medal and Prize, graduating MB BS on the 11th December 1940. Holmes, married Roma Marguerite Chaston, a registered nurse at the RAH, in June 1941, at the Kent Town Methodist Church. His father conducted the ceremony. She was the only daughter of Herbert Harry Chaston and Grace, nee Gavens.

Holmes was living at 7 Irwin Street, Millswood, SA when he enlisted as a surgeon lieutenant, on 15th March 1941, and was mobilised at Port Adelaide on 22nd December 1941.  He was appointed to Torrens and within a month to Westralia from November 1941 to July 1942.  The Westralia was an armed merchant cruiser, conducting troop transport and escort duty in and around Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Following this appointment, he returned to shore for a month at Penguin and then again to sea in HMAS Nizam on the 27th August 1942 until the 14th October 1943. HMAS Nizam was one of eight N Class destroyers.   Nizam's war service, at this time, was in East African waters in the Madagascar campaign, in September 1942, and Mombasa, Kenya. The following year the Nizam, with eight other destroyers, patrolled the Indian and South Atlantic oceans searching for German ships and submarines, until June 1943. Holmes returned to Australia when the Nizam returned for a refit in late July 1943. The Mount Gambier Border Watch, reported on February 15th 1947: While he [Holmes] was in the Navy at Algiers, two men, Sir Howard Florey and Professor Hugh Cairns (both of South Australia) arrived from Britain with a small case containing practically all the penicillin in the world and they completely reversed the methods of treatment of wounds, with results that were nothing short of marvelous. Holmes returned to shore with appointments to Melville, Cerberus, Rushcutters and Torrens, SA where he enrolled, in a CRTS pre-discharge training program, as an RMO at the ACH. His service was terminated on the 28th August 1946, and he was transferred to the RANVR with a promotion to Surgeon Lieutenant Commander on the 15th March 1947.

Following his war service, Holmes took up general practice in Mount Gambier, in the south-east of SA, at the Ferrers Clinic, in association with Dr Jack Law Willis, who had served in the RAN in WW1.  He also was an honorary medical officer at the Mount Gambier Hospital until 29th June 1974. Holmes was the Local Medical Officer of Health of the Port MacDonald Area, a member of the South Eastern branch of the AMA and of the National Association of General Practitioners. Holmes is particularly remembered in Mount Gambier for his interest in native trees and his planting activities of some 8,000 trees around the Golf Course and the Caravan Park through the Lakes Beautification Committee.  Holmes and his wife, Roma, were also extensively involved in community events and committees. These include the Hospital Auxiliary, the Red Cross, the Heritage Industries workshop and shop for the disabled. Sport and recreation were also strongly supported with commitments to the Golf Club, the Show Society, the Mt Gambier Racing Club and Trotting Club, the Caravan Park via the Queen Elizabeth Park Trust and the Reidy Park School. After his retirement from the hospital, in 1974, Holmes moved to NSW and set up a small practice at Malua Bay.  He gave voluntary service on several occasions; and, particularly, in 1979, as the chief surgeon at the Vila Base Hospital in Vanuatu, helping the communities in Vanuatu. Henry Bertram Holmes died at the Batemans Bay Hospital, NSW, on 2nd August 1993. His wife, Roma, children, Anne and Bill, and five grandchildren 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