Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

SANGSTER Christopher Bagot OBE MD FRCP FRACP

1908 – 1995

Christopher Bagot Sangster was born on 1st May 1908, in Burra, SA.  He was the son of Dr John I Sangster and Ruby Kathleen, nee Turnbull. His father died in 1915, and his mother moved to Adelaide with Sangster and his two brothers. He was educated at St Peter's College, where he was head prefect and captain of cricket, tennis, football and athletics.  He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and continued his commitment to sports and captained cricket and football at the university.  He also represented SA in Sheffield Shield Cricket as well as being captain of the SA amateur football team.  He graduated MB BS in 1931 and was awarded the Everard Scholarship. After his resident at the Adelaide Hospital he travelled to London to gain his MRCP in 1934.  He decided on a career as a physician and on his return to Adelaide set up a private practice, which he continued for fifty years.  Sangster married Helen Elizabeth Burston, the daughter of Major General Sir Samuel and Lady Helen Elizabeth, nee Culross, on 7th January 1939. He was awarded a doctorate from the University of Adelaide in 1941 for his work on rheumatic fever.

Sangster served in the AAMC CMF, from 15th August 1939, at the rank of captain, when he was living in Unley Park, and named his wife, Helen as his next of kin.  He was promoted major, in March 1941, and appointed DAD Hygiene Medical in 4MD from February 1941 to June 1942. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he was called up for full-time duty on 8th July 1942. He was posted as OC Medical to 109 AGH in Alice Springs but administered command while waiting for the appointment of a CO.  He transferred to the 2/AIF and appointed OC Medical Division to 2/1 AGH, and he served in 2/1 AGH and 109 AGH within Australia for the next year. Sangster embarked, from Sydney, on the Tacoona for PNG on 2nd of September 1943 and returned to Australia in June 1944. He then left for Bougainville, in October 1944, where he was attached to 4 Aust Base for special duty. He returned to Australia as CO of 121 AGH in December 1945, followed by the command of 105 AMH, in Adelaide, until his discharge on 12 November 1946. He was Mentioned in Despatches on 15th March 1945, and subsequently awarded the Order of the British Empire for: - carrying out his duties meritoriously and untiringly… his devotion to duty has been a valuable contribution to the war effort.

Following the war, Sangster returned to his private practice and concentrated on cardiology. He maintained a teaching role with the RAH and was appointed as an honorary physician to the hospital in 1955; retained until his retirement in 1968.  He was a Foundation Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.  He was also a visiting physician to the Home for Incurables, now the Julia Farr Home, and visiting physician to the Repatriation General Hospital, for forty-six years. He was the Chief Medical Officer of the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society, a councillor and senior vice-president to the Royal Automobile Association of SA. He retained his love of sport throughout his life especially in golf and tennis and became a keen gardener. His son John, a medical practitioner, recalls the things that Sangster enjoyed most were the army and his family.  He remembers being taken to the RGH by his father, a lifelong affiliation with the hospital. Christopher Bagot Sangster died on 27th February 1995, his wife Helen predeceased him in 1992.  He was survived by his four children Robin, John, Andrew and Helen. 

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