Virtual
War Memorial
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PAVY Ian Gordon MB BS FRACO DO

1920 - 2004

Ian Gordon Pavy was born, on 12th December 1920, in Adelaide, SA. He was the eldest child of Gordon Augustus Pavy, a lawyer, and Emily Dorothea, nee Proud. His parents married in London, in 1917, while his father served with 48Bn 1/AIF. His remarkable mother, called Dorothea, completed her DSc (Econ) in 1916 at the London School of Economics. She was a teacher, sociologist and later lawyer. She was awarded a CBE, in 1917, receiving this at Buckingham Palace at the same time as Professor William Bragg [later Sir William Bragg, joint Nobel Laureate (1915) OM KBE PRS, shared with his son, Lawrence Bragg], was awarded his CBE. Pavy was educated at St Peter’s College and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide graduating in 1943. He undertook his residency training at the RAH. His great interest, as a student and junior doctor, was motor cars. As a resident, he built a car, with his cousin David Magarey (a director of the ‘Magarey Orchard’ Coromandel Valley, SA); unbeknown to Pavy some of the residents carried it into the RAH overnight and parked it outside the medical superintendent's office. His sister, who was born in 1926, also graduated MB BS, from the University of Adelaide, in 1948.

Pavy, at the rank of captain, was called up for full time duty, with the AAMC, on 17th March 1945 and named his father as his next of kin. He served in SA and undertook the School of Hygiene course in May 1945.  Pavy was posted to 105 CCS and left Townsville for Jacquinot Bay on 22nd August 1945.  He was hospitalised with a thrombosis in December 1945, and was appointed MO to 4th FdAmb. Followed by a posting to HQ  5 Australian Base sub-area and by 16th February 1946 he was attached as MO to HQ 8MD PNG. He returned to Sydney on the Manunda, from Rabaul, arriving on 29th May 1946. Pavy was posted to 105 AMH from 28th November 1946 until discharge on 24th June 1947.

Returning to civilian practice, Pavy undertook training in ophthalmology at the RAH, the Adelaide Children’s Hospital, and the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. He obtained the DO (Melbourne) in 1950, the MRACO in 1971 and the FRACO in 1978.  He travelled to London, in 1950, and worked with Professor Sorsby at the Royal Eye Hospital, London for 17 years, as well as maintaining a private practice. He married Margaret Muir Harkness, in Edinburgh, on 18th November 1960; she was educated at Edinburgh University, MB ChB, and like Pavy, an ophthalmologist with Professor Sorsby in London. They had three children, the two boys were born in London, and their daughter was born in Adelaide. He returned to Adelaide, in 1970, to a private specialist ophthalmology practice, with his wife, also an ophthalmologist, in the Liberal Club Building and then Verco Buildings, North Terrace, Adelaide.  Successively, he was an honorary clinical ophthalmology assistant, and senior visiting ophthalmologist at the RAH, Adelaide Children’s Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital at Daw Park.  Pavy bought the family home, in 1971, and, outside his practice, spent all his life enjoying his garden. Ian Gordon Pavy died in Adelaide on 7th July 2004 and was survived by his wife, two sons, a gardening business owner and an accountant, and daughter, a Perth Art Gallery staff member.

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