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War Memorial
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ADEY William Ross MD

1922-2004

William Ross Adey (Ross) was born, at Grange, SA, on the 31st January 1922.  He was the eldest child of William James and Constance Margaret, née Weston, of The Grange, Port Adelaide.  During his younger years he enjoyed observing marine life in tidal pools, read books, and build radios in the family basement. Adey was a precocious child and graduated from Adelaide High School at fourteen years of age. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide graduating in 1943, at the age of twenty-one, and was awarded the Everard Scholarship. While at university he was a fast bowler in cricket and captained the school rifle team. His first clinical position, was at the RAH, in 1944, as a resident doctor.  Recalling his early years in a June 2002 interview, Adey said, “I was absolutely fascinated by radio. I started building crystal sets as most kids did at that age. It grew beyond that, and by the time I was 13 and 14, I had built quite a number of very large vacuum tube sets, valves as we called them. I got an amateur radio license when I was 17 years old.” Throughout his life, radio framed his professional and social activities far more than any other hobby.

Adey was appointed surgeon lieutenant RANR on 10th March 1944. He nominated his wife Alwynne of 27 River St, St. Peters as his next of kin. The University of Adelaide requested his mobilisation deferred, as he was to be a lecturer in anatomy and Adey was attached to the land-based Torrens at Port Adelaide. He was however mobilised, on the 16th July 1945, and spent time at Leeuwin land base in WA. Then, from 22nd February 1946, he had sea service onboard  HMAS Shropshire, for six months. His appointment terminated on the 28th October 1946. Years later, Adey reminisced, “In rough seas on cold nights, we would go into the radar hut and warm ourselves with the stray emissions that drove the radar antennas.”

Adey’s first publication, based on research conducted for his M.D. degree, in 1949, at the University of Adelaide, was an electromyographic study of a type of chronic myopathy. The blending of electronics and scientific research that would mark his career led to the construction of the first Australian six-channel recorder of brain electrical signals, which was used for clinical research on epileptic children and laboratory studies. His second publication, on the motor mechanisms in the brain of anurans, was followed by a stream of neuroanatomical studies in species ranging from earthworms to Australian marsupials and monkeys. Upon receiving the Nuffield Foundation Fellowship in Medicine in 1950, Adey travelled to England for postgraduate research on limbic system structural anatomy and its pathways to the diencephalon, at Oxford University. The return trip from England to Adelaide included a stopover in Los Angeles, which led, three years later, to the start of a 23-year-long association with UCLA Medical School, where he was Professor of Anatomy and Physiology for 20 years. He became an American citizen in 1962.  Adey was known for his clarity and comprehension in his lectures on neuroanatomy.  Which showed a mastery of neuroanatomical detail and complexity, neuroembryology, and higher brain functions—all held in his memory and delivered in sculpted flowing prose. Adey and his colleagues made pioneering advances in the research of the brain, measurements of the electrical properties of brain tissue, spectral analysis of EEG, and the mechanisms of memory. Adey, became Director of the Space Biology Laboratory from 1961 to 1974. at the UCLA Brain Research Institute, where he conducted animal and human research. His laboratory developed the technology for biotelemetry from space that allowed EEG recordings from astronauts Lovell and Borman showing the effects of weightlessness on brain function. He was made Distinguished Professor, Royal Society of Medicine, and received the D’Arsonval Medal and Hans Selye Award. William Ross Adey died at Redhill, San Bernardino, California on the 5th May 2004. He had been married twice and was survived by his son, Geoff, a neurosurgeon, and daughter, Susie.

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