Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Claude and Mary Carmody were married on 10 August 1940. It was a quiet
wedding as at the time Claude was not a Catholic. Claude was the son of
Samuel Lum and Florence Hill. Samuel Lum was a Chinese fruit merchant, part of the Adelaide Chinese community.

Claude was always very conscious of his “half-caste status” as he put it. He was successful in gaining scholarships for St Andrew’s School and then later for medical school. Most of the other medical students came from professional
families and he appreciated their kindness and consideration in disregarding his Chinese background.

He tried to enlist in the Australian Air Force in 1940 but was rejected apparently because of his ethnic background. He thought the High Command were not sure of the difference between Chinese and Japanese as they both represented the
yellow peril.

In early 1941 Claude and Mary went to Kimba on the West Coast. This was a remote one-man practice with the occasional emergency such as appendicectomies and even a cholecystectomy to liven things up. On one occasion Claude dealt with a perforated ulcer which meant swabbing out a pint of beer and the remains of a Cornish pasty. Mary acted as nurse assistant.

In the pre-war years medical graduates were trained to perform emergency abdominal operations because they could well spend the first few years in remote country towns, miles away from the bigger towns and Adelaide.

Claude enlisted in the CMF in August 1941. He was initially posted as medical officer to the internment camp at Loveday. During his time here, he befriended an Italian professor and took Italian lessons. He had learnt Latin and French at school and so really didn’t find this difficult. Another internee introduced him to opera.

In January 1942 he was taken on in the AIF with the rank of Captain and was transferred to Katherine and was involved in the setting up of an Army General Hospital. He then was detached from normal army duties to tend to the civilian population scattered in cattle stations over a 500 mile radius. He became fascinated with the “outback”, the colours, the shapes, strange animals and vegetation and made his first attempts at watercolour painting.

He was able to visit the aboriginal reserves due to his privileged medical status and he claimed to be the first doctor to treat the trachoma epidemics of 1942-43 by administration of sulphonamides to all the tribes in the area. Yaws, a general skin ulceration, was also endemic and he was particularly gratified to cure one
sick child with penicillin.

By 1945 he was in Bougainville, camped at the base of an active volcano. Twice he was thrown from his bunk by earthquakes. The remaining Japanese hiding in the hills used to come in at night to watch the American films which were screened on the open air cinema. During this time Mary lived at 16 Anglo Avenue, Parkside and worked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital as a Charge Sister with a stint at the Northfield Infectious Diseases Hospital as well as the TB ward on Frome Road.

Following his discharge on 9th May 1946, Claude and Mary moved to Alice Springs where Claude was appointed as a Flying Doctor. He was able to visit many remote aboriginal reserves generally off limits to the general population and the surrounding beauty spots such as Kings Canyon and Palm Valley. These
visit involved long journeys by camel and sleeping out in a sleeping bag at night where he could watch the sky.

During this time he met Albert Namatjira who was taught watercolour painting by
Rex Battarbee of the Hermannsburg school of watercolourists. Claude claimed one of his own paintings is a half-Namatjira as Albert helped him out with painting half the spinifex grass in the foreground of his painting!

After 18 months in Alice Springs Claude decided to undertake post-graduate study in England. Mary and Claude left for England in August 1947, sailing on the “Stratheden”. Mary enjoyed every bit of the voyage and it began her love affair with sea travel. Claude passed the Royal College of Physicians exam in 1948. This was a double honour as he had passed the Royal Australian College of
physicians exam in 1947 before leaving for England.

During this time in England he and Mary lived at Harefield in Essex and Mary nursed at Brompton Hospital. Claude exhibited some of his Central Australian watercolours at the Medical Arts Society in London.

Following his post-graduate success he and Mary spent some time in Europe, using his Italian lessons to good effect! On return to Adelaide, Claude was appointed Superintendent of the Medical Division at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. However he missed the attractions of England, the antiquities, art galleries,
theatres, opera and in October 1950 he returned to England as a consultant chest physician in Nayland. Mary joined him later in March 1951, sailing on the “Strathaird”.

They planned to live at Northwood near the hospital. At this time Claude discovered sailing and over the next 18 years he and Mary spent their holidays cruising in Europe on the two yachts he had built to his own specifications.

In 1959 he was recruited to the team developing cardiopulmonary bypass techniques at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge (the largest cardiothoracic hospital in England) and then in 1962 he established a respiratory physiology facility at Papworth Hospital. He was known particularly for his studies on hyperventilation and whilst a chest physician at Papworth developed the strategy of 'breathing retraining' to address hyperventilation.

He and Mary lived at “Summerleas”, DryDrayton just outside Cambridge. Claude continued with his watercolours and became an associate member of the Ipswich Art Club and exhibited his work over a 20 year period. Mary returned to Adelaide in 1974.

Claude latterly lived at Windmill Grange, Histon, Cambridgeshire and died in hospital on 2 December 2008, aged 92, leaving a son Edward and a daughter Claudia from his second wife.