Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

WEST Robert Frank MD FRCP FRACP

1912 – 1994

Robert Frank West (Bob) was born, on 23rd June 1912, in Kaniva, Victoria.  He was the second son of Dr Gordon Roy West and Marie Maud, nee Scott. His grandfather was the Inspector of Schools in SA, and an uncle was Dr Esmond Frank West. His elder brother Leonard Roy West, also a medical practitioner, served, in Europe, with the RAMC during WW2. His parents moved back to South Australia, where his father later became superintendent of the Adelaide Hospital. West was educated at St Peter’s College, and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide. He graduated in 1935 and was awarded the Everard Scholarship. He completed his resident year at the Adelaide Hospital and then worked his way to England as a ship's surgeon. He gained his MRCP and returned to Adelaide.  He later became one of the first to obtain the MRACP in the new Royal Australasian College of Physicians.  West married Constance Mercia Garrard, daughter of Samuel Garrard of Merildin, SA and Sarah Jane, nee Scarfe, on 12th May 1938 at the St Peter’s College Chapel.

West enlisted in the AAMC in March 1940, when he was living in Nailsworth, SA. He was appointed as an RMO of the 27th Fd Regt, 9 Div, at the rank of captain. He embarked for overseas, on 17th November 1940, disembarking in the Middle East on 17th December 1940. He went with his unit to Palestine and then North Africa and, from April 1941, he was at Mersa Matruh. He attended the Middle East School of Tropical Diseases on 6th April 1941 before re-joining the Regt on 9th April. He transferred to the 2/5th FdAmb on 5th November 1941 before being allotted to the 2/3rd

 CCS on 13th November.  West was promoted to major, in January 1942, and posted as a MO and OC light section to the 2/3rd CCS. The light section consisted of two surgeons, an anaesthetist and a resuscitation officer.  He suffered from a chalazion, a benign cyst, in September, and after treatment, in 7 AGH returned to his unit on 13th October 1942. His section was involved in the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. West relinquished his temporary rank on 10th December 1942, and transferred to the 1 Australian Depot Bn.  He embarked in Suez for the return to Australia on 11th December 1942.  He was posted to 101 AGH and again given the temporary rank of major on 3rd March 1943; this time confirmed. West was appointed as OC Medical Div of 105 AMH on 28th February 1943. This was followed by a post as a physician to 109 AGH, at Adelaide River, NT and 107 AGH. He became ill with encephalomyelitis and, following a prolonged convalescence at Kapara, SA, was discharged medically unfit in early 1946.

West returned to the RAH as a consultant physician, from 1947 until 1952, and was also an honorary medical officer in charge of the resuscitation clinic. He was on the planning committee for the rebuilding of the RAH to a thousand bed hospital and served as chair of the RAH Medical Staff Society.  He was a committee member of the National Heart Foundation, SA, the RACP-SA, and one of the early members of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. West travelled to London in 1950, and saw a flame photometer at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School which he then, with parts brought from London, assembled in Adelaide.  This flame photometer was used by the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science for many years.  West, also visited the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA, in 1956, and saw its cardiac diagnostic and open-heart surgery programme.  He strongly supported the development of these services in Adelaide, which were introduced at the RAH in 1960. His practice involved home visits in North Adelaide, Thorngate and Medindie, and adjacent suburbs; many were appreciative of a home visiting specialist physician. His marriage to Constance was dissolved, they had no children.  He married Anne Chibnall, and they had a son, Robert in 1964. Sadly, Anne died after an illness and West brought up his son, as a sole parent. Robert Frank West died on 1st May 1994, survived by his son Robert.

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