Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Dr Robert Stirling Colton joined the Australian army after graduating from medical school at the University of Adelaide in 1945. On enlistment he served in the Commonwealth Occupation Forces within the 10th Field Ambulance based in Kure Japan. He served in various locations including Hiroshima, discharging from the Army as a Major to serve his community as a civilian medical practitioner on his return to Australia. He completed his MD in leukaemia research and was a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and practiced medicine in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland into his early 80s.

Dr Colton was the kind of doctor who believed in spending over and above the allocated consultation time to reach a diagnosis for his patients. Consequently he became known for his advanced diagnostic skills and for his kindness to people, helping many who were unable to pay for his services.

Dr Colton came from a long family line of service. His great grandfather was Sir John Colton, twice premier of South Australia, Lord Mayor of Adelaide and an active philanthropist who was an MP for 20 years in South Australia. Dr Colton’s great grandmother, Lady Mary Colton was president of the South Australian suffragettes when women achieved the vote in SA in 1893. His brother John was a prosecutor in South Australia and  served in the RAN for the duration of WW2 on active service on a Corvette, His son Brendon served in the RAAF for close to 15 years including active service in the Middle East and East Timor on several deployments.

Dr Colton was a dedicated family man and doctor who helped countless hundreds of patients, practicing medicine for over 60 years. He was a man of great humor and wit, often laughing at his own jokes along with the beaming smiles of his children. He was incredibly devoted to his wife Kira, who required significant support over her lifetime having suffered a number of ailments. He was a wonderful father, mentor and friend to to his three children and 8 grandchildren. Dr Colton was a rock of kindness and support throughout his life of giving.

Robert Colton like many of his university colleagues during WW2, Colton enlisted, on 19th September 1941 in Glenelg SA, as a private soldier, and was required to serve in the CMF until he completed his medical degree and his resident year.   He was then posted, in 1946, to Kure, Japan with the BCOF. His son Brendon reflects that his father had many stories about his time in Japan, including the time when he was acting CO for 20 FdAmb.  General Robertson (known as ‘Red Robbie’) made an unannounced inspection. When the General arrived, the formation was not ready and Colton politely said, “We’re not quite ready sir, would you mind giving us a few minutes”. Apparently the General went a little redder than usual, but did stay in his car until Dad gave the all clear. Another favourite of his was that the biggest concern of the medical authorities was the rising scourge of venereal disease among the troops. They were more worried that the Women’s Weekly magazine would hear about it in Australia, leading to some awkward situations for the women folk at home. Colton spent two years in Japan rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and CO of 20 FdAmb. He was issued the Australian Service Medal 1945-1976, and the BCOF Japan Medal 1946–1952.

Colton returned to Adelaide and resumed his employment at the RAH as a medical registrar, in 1948. He then travelled to London to study for membership of the Royal College of Physicians at the Royal Post Graduate Medical School of London. He then returned to Adelaide to a position of assistant to the Professor of Medicine at the University of Adelaide, from 1951 until 1954. This was followed by an appointment at the RAH and TQEH as honorary assistant physician and consultant physician. He concurrently studied for his Doctorate of Medicine at the University of Adelaide and graduated in 1960. During this year he married Kira Oleinikova on 10th September 1960. They were to have three children, in 1961, 1962 and 1966. Colton then took up a position at the Parramatta Psychiatric Centre, in Sydney, from 1963 until 1968.  Returning to South Australia, in 1969, he was appointed as Director of the Alcohol and Drug Centre, in Adelaide. Colton travelled to Israel with his wife in the mid-1970s and was very moved by the experience of ‘walking where Jesus walked’ as he put it. He remained in South Australia in private practice and as a Senior Physician TQEH until 1984.  Moving to Queensland he continued with a private practice in Cairns and was appointed as Director of the Cairns Alcohol and Drug Centre. Leaving Cairns in 1988 he travelled through Queensland working in clinics and locums until 1992, followed by three years in private practice in Canberra.  He returned to Adelaide and was appointed to a part-time position as physician for the South Australian Forensic Health Service and continued in private practice, retiring in 2006.  Robert Stirling Colton died on 21st December 2015, his wife Kira predeceased him. His son reflects that he wasn’t an overtly religious man and never expressed a solid belief in the after-life, but was a quiet practitioner of the virtues, in keeping with a Christian life.  He is survived by his three children Aria, Robert and Brendon, who is a serving member of the RAAF and has been deployed to the Middle East and Timor Leste.