Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

MESSENT Sir Philip Santo MS FRACS 1895-1976 - By Professor Annette Summers 

Philip Santo Messent was born, on 22nd February 1895, in Unley, SA. He was the son of Philip Samuel Messent ISO (Imperial Service Order), Secretary for the Lands, and Amelia Elizabeth, nee Santo. She was the granddaughter of Philip Santo, an early settler, Commissioner of Works and a South Australian Member of Parliament. Messent was educated at Kyre College, later Scotch College, and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1918. Although Messent volunteered to join the AIF, in WW1, when he was still a medical student, he was never called up for duty and was discharged in November 1918. Messent returned to his studies and gained his Master of Surgery in 1923. He was one of three honorary anaesthetists appointed at the Adelaide Hospital from 1922 to 1925. Messent married Agnes May Rich, nee Newberry, on 4th September 1920. She was the daughter of John Haris Newberry and Margaret, nee Mulqueeny, of Millicent. He became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1927. Messent had been in the CMF since 1920, first as a lieutenant and then promoted captain, in September 1923, and served in the CMF until the beginning of WW2. Messent enlisted for war duty from the Reserve of Officers, on the 6th November 1940, at the rank of major, and allotted to 1 AGH. He named his wife as his next of kin, and they were living in Westall Street, Hyde Park SA. He was appointed as a visiting specialist to 105 AMH for one day a week. He remained in South Australia throughout the war, and his pay records show that he ceased his appointment on 27th November 1944. Messent was knighted on 7th June 1951 for his service to medicine. At that time, he was the Director of Surgical Studies at the University of Adelaide. Philip Santo Messent died on 5th February 1976 in Hyde Park, South Australia. His wife Agnes died in 1979 Sources Ancestry.com NAA: B884, S100008 Barcode 6416285 The Register, Adelaide, 3rd June 1930. The Register, Adelaide, 11th October 1920 Verco, Summers, Swain and Jelly, 2014, Blood, Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australia who served in WW1, Open Book Howden, Adelaide. Thanks to Andrew Jessup, grandson for providing further information.