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LENDON Alan Harding MB BS FRCS FRACS

1903-1973

Alan Harding Lendon was born on 11th August 1903, in Adelaide, He was the son of Dr Alfred Austin Lendon a prominent Adelaide medical practitioner.  His mother, Lucy Isabel, nee Rymill was well regarded for her charitable work with the Australian Comforts Fund during WW1.  He had two siblings, Guy Austin and Dorothy.  They lived in Mills Terrace, North Adelaide.  Lendon was educated at St. Peter’s College and the University of Adelaide winning the Davies Thomas Prize in 1924 and 1926, and the Everard Scholarship, graduating in 1927.  He was secretary of the University Sports Association and won a Blue for rifle-shooting.  After a year at Adelaide Hospital, he went to London and obtained the FRCS, London, in 1931. He returned to South Australia and worked with Sir Henry Newland at the Adelaide Hospital.  He became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1933.  He married Margaret Hadfield Edmunds, on 8th November 1933, at St Peter’s College Chapel.  She was the daughter of Charles Augustus Edmunds and Maggie Ramsay, nee Fulton.  Lendon and his wife had two sons and a daughter.

Lendon enlisted as a captain on 20th May 1940, and was rapidly deployed to 2/3rd AGH in Godalming, Surrey, England.  Lendon went to the Middle East with the 2/4th AGH in May 1941. He was promoted to major in June 1941. He served with 2/4th AGH during the first siege of Tobruk where they experienced “bombs, bombs and incendiaries”.  The hospital left Tobruk in August 1941, ahead of the German/Italian advance and was re-established in Jerusalem in November of that year.  In mid-January 1942 the unit was warned to pack for the tropics, and in March they sailed for Colombo.  Lendon returned to Australia in August 1942, and the hospital was re-established at Redbank near Brisbane.  Promoted to lieutenant colonel on 11th September 1942, Lendon was OC surgery, until early 1944 with 2/4th AGH, when he transferred to 105 AMH, in SA.   Lendon transferred to 2/9 AGH, as OC surgery in March 1945, and embarked for Morotai before the attack on Tarakan.  The war ended in August, but medical units were then called on to manage thousands of wounded, emaciated and sick former prisoners of war.  Lendon left in November 1945 for Adelaide, and transferred to the Reserve of Officers in January 1946.  He was Mentioned in Despatches in 1947.

Lendon's later medical career was devoted primarily to surgical education, both through academic appointments at the University of Adelaide and through the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons; he was on the Court of Examiners, as a Council member and served on the South Australian State Committee of the College.  He chaired the State Committee from 1951 until 1964.  Lendon had a lifelong interest in ornithology and was President of the Avicultural Society of South Australia from 1940 to 1949 and was associated with the South Australian Ornithological Association, the Adelaide Ornithologists Club and the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union.  He was a member of the Fauna and Flora Board and wrote books on the subject from 1962 until his death.  He played golf and enjoyed watching cricket.  Alan Harding Lendon died on 12 July 1973 after a long illness. His wife Margaret, and children survived him.

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