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NEWLAND Malcolm Creswell MB BS FFARACS DA

1915 – 2007

Malcolm Creswell Newland was born on 2nd October 1915, in Adelaide.  He was the son of Ralph Dimmock Newland, who was the brother of Sir Henry Simpson Newland. His mother was Hazel Thornton, nee Creswell. Newland had two older brothers, John Creswell and Basil Creswell Newland. His father owned property at Watervale in the Clare Valley, SA. His mother died five weeks after his birth, and according to Newland’s Recollections and Reflections he saw very little of his father and was brought up by his Creswell grandparents in View Street, Unley Park.  His mother’s brother, John Creswell, who served in WW1, had a strong influence on his life.  He recalls he had a happy childhood with the Creswells, but did not see much of his brothers, who were in boarding school at St Peter’s College, Adelaide.  He also had limited contact with the Newland side of his family, of whom, he recollected, he was always quite frightened.  After spending his early years at Tiverton kindergarten, he was educated at St Peter’s College, where he won the Tennyson Medal for English literature, as a day student and was a member of the Army Cadets. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and graduated MB BS in 1938. He was an RMO at the RAH in 1939. He married Joan Cuthbert Emery, a nurse, on 3rd February 1940, in the St Peter’s College Chapel. She was the daughter of Mr and Mrs ME Emery of Woodville, SA.

Newland joined the CMF, as a captain, on 17th December 1940. He named his wife Joan as his next of kin and they were living at The Grove, Woodville.  He attended the School of Tropical Medicine, Sydney, in October 1941 and was admitted to 52 Camp Hospital at Wayville, SA, with appendicitis in November 1941. He enlisted into the 2/AIF on 31st December 1941, and transferred to 15th Lt FdAmb with 2nd Armoured Bde in 3MD.  By February 1942, he was posted as MO to the L of C area, NSW. His daughter was born in May 1942, and he was transferred from the NSW L of C to the Qld L of C on 6th January 1943.  Newland was promoted major on 28th September 1943, and appointed 2IC of 2/15th Lt FdAmb, which was redesignated as 2/15th FdAmb in December 1943. Newland embarked for PNG, from QLD, on 10th January 1944 arriving at Finschhafen on the 16th January. He contracted Dengue fever, in February 1944, and was hospitalised for five days. He re-joined his unit from 19th February 1944 until he was appointed MO at 121 AGH on 14th January 1945. He was returned to Australia and medically reclassified due to asthma and appointed 2IC of 107 Australian Convalescent Depot in August 1945. He was transferred from 2/AIF to the L of C in SA on the 15th January 1946, and his appointment terminated on 29th April 1946.

Newland undertook a refresher course at the RAH on leaving the Army.  He then commenced general practice in Naracoorte, SA, followed by a position as anaesthetic registrar at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, in 1956.  He returned to Adelaide and became an honorary anaesthetist to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (TQEH), from 1958 until 1963,  and also a visiting anaesthetist to the Adelaide Children’s Hospital (ACH) from 1958 until 1970. He was the Director of Anaesthesia at the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital, Adelaide, from 1967 until 1980 when he retired. Malcolm Creswell Newland died on 26th August 2007. His three children, Peter, Patricia and Janet, survived him, his wife Joan had predeceased him in 1999. His only son, Peter, was, like his father, a specialist anaesthetist.

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