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VENNER Barton Frederick MB BS, MS, FRCS, FRACS

1922 – 1991

Barton Frederick Venner was born 14th June 1922 in Broken Hill.  He was eldest son of three children of George Barton Venner and Nellie, nee Sykes. His father was a well-known business man and grocer in Broken Hill. Venner had an older sister, Yvonne, born in 1914 and a younger brother, Gilbert, born in 1930.  He attended Broken Hill High School. His family moved to Gumeracha, South Australia and Venner spent his last three years of schooling at Prince Alfred College.  He was gifted academically. He also enjoyed sports and played inter-collegiate football, tennis and yachting. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and won the British Medical Association Scholarship, Davies Thomas Scholarship, and the Elder Prize. He was awarded the Everard Scholarship and Wyeth Prize in Clinical Obstetrics. During his university years he lived at Ashford, a suburb of Adelaide. He graduated MB BS, in 1946, and undertook his residency at the RAH in 1947.

Early in his university years, during WW2, like many of his fellow students he enlisted on 19th September 1941 at Unley as a private soldier. Also like many of his fellow medical students he remained in the CMF until he finished his degree.  On completion of his resident year at the RAH, he joined the regular Army as a Captain in the AAMC, on 30th June 1947.  He was posted to HMAS Manoora for voyage only duties to India. He embarked from Sydney, on 14th August 1947, for service with BCOF in Japan.  He was first appointed to regimental duties with 20 FdAmb and then as a medical officer with 130 AGH in Kure. This was followed by a return to 20 FdAmb and then a transfer to Head Quarters BCOF.  He embarked on the HMAS Kanimbla for return to Sydney on 19 January 1949. He was put on leave without pay for the next few months and his full time military service was terminated on 13th May 1949. He was transferred to the Reserve of Officers RAAMC, in 4 MD, on 28 July 1949. Later Venner applied for assistance under the War Service Home Act, and it was determined that he was appointed to the active AIF and therefore entitled to the assistance requested, however he never received it. He was issued the 1939–1945 War Medal, the Australian Service Medal 1945-1976, and the BCOF Japan Medal 1946–1952.

Following his service in Japan, Venner went to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1950, as a surgical registrar. He remained there until he gained his MS and fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1951. It was here that he met and married Joyce Muriel Moore, a nurse at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, on 25th August 1951. They were to have four daughters. He then went to England, in 1952, for an appointment as a senior registrar, to achieve his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons.  Venner and Joyce returned to Australia, and Adelaide, in 1953, where he took up an honorary appointment at the RAH, mentoring many of South Australia’s current medical practitioners. His main surgical interest was in oesopho-gastric surgery.   He was a tutor in surgery and applied anatomy at the University of Adelaide from 1956 to 1963. He was an honorary surgeon from 1964 to 1970, a visiting surgeon from 1971, culminating in the role of Chairman of the Department of General Surgery from 1984 to 1985.  Venner retired from the RAH in 1986, but he also had a private practice which he continued after his retirement. He enjoyed music, bee keeping and the French language.  Barton Frederick Venner, died on 12th April 1991, aged 68, in Adelaide. He was survived by his wife and daughters; Mary, Barbara, Sarah and Lisa.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears II: Medical Practitioners of South Australia on Active Service After World War 2 to Vietnam 1945-1975.

Summers, Swain, Jelly, Verco. Open Book Howden, Adelaide 2016

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD