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WEBB Arthur Liddon MB BS FRCS

1898-1969

Arthur Liddon Webb was born, on 19th February 1898, in Adelaide, SA. He was the son of Frederick Webb, and Emma Jane, nee Barnes. His father was the Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Adelaide, for more than thirty years. The Holy Trinity Church was the first Anglican Church established in SA. He had two brothers who also were medical practitioners. He was educated at St Peter’s College and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, where he won the Farrell Scholarship and a Government Bursary.  Webb also rowed for the university inter-varsity championships, in 1922, the same year that he graduated. Webb travelled to England and worked in a number of the teaching hospitals to gain his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. He took a position as a clinical assistant at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, after returning to Australia.  Webb was appointed, as Surgical Superintendent at Broken Hill Hospital, NSW. He married Evelyn Florence Broughton Young, from Bundaberg, Queensland.

Webb enlisted in 2/AIF in Paddington, New South Wales, on 7th June 1940, as an orthopaedic surgeon, and named his wife, Evelyn as his next of kin. They were living at 1416 Pacific Highway Turramurra, NSW, at the time. He was immediately promoted to major, effective from 25th May 1940, and posted to the newly formed  2/5th AGH. Webb embarked on the Queen Mary, with the main body of his unit, for Palestine, in the Middle East, on 24th November 1940, and was detached for unspecified special duty until 25th March 1941. Webb re-joined 2/5th AGH and embarked for Greece on 10th April 1941, but was soon back to the Middle East in late April 1941. The situation in Greece had deteriorated, and most of the hospital was evacuated back to the Middle East. The male staff, including six doctors, who remained to look after patients who could not be evacuated, were all taken as prisoners of war.  He had several short detachments over the next six months before re-joining 2/5th AGH on 24 August 1941. When Japan entered the war, the 2/5th AGH was recalled to Australia and Webb arrived back in 4 MD, Adelaide, on 19th March 1943, having been posted to 102 AGH. He was posted to 108 AGH and then detached to 1 Australian Orthopaedic Hospital in April 1943. He remained in NSW with short postings until his retirement from the AAMC on 10th January 1944.

Following the war, Webb established his medical career as an orthopaedic surgeon and with his wife and three daughters travelled to England, returning to Australia, in 1950. At this time, they lived in Braeside Street, Wahroonga, NSW.  Webb appeared in a compensation case as an expert orthopaedic surgeon, in New South Wales.  He had operated on a fractured femur and had used two titanium plates to stabilise a fracture which he had not attempted before.  Arthur Liddon Webb died in New South Wales, on 23rd January 1969, and was survived by his wife and daughters Constance Rosemary, Evelyn Alison and Winsome Mary.

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