Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

“Casino and Kyogle Courier and North Coast Advertiser, 4 June 1913, Page 2” –

“The King’s Birthday honours were announced today. The order of Knight Bachelor has been conferred upon Dr. Alexander McCormick of Sydney”.

“Wellington Times, 8 October 1936, Page 12”

“Called the “old woman with a white coat,” Dr Alexander McCormick was the doctor who introduced white coats for surgeons in Sydney sixty years ago.

The old doctor, now Sir Alexander McCormick, had earned also the amused scorn of the profession for insisting on washing his hands before an operation. Before that time in Sydney, seven out of every ten patients operated on died. But this young Scottish surgeon altered all that.

“The Daily Telegraph, 18th December 1899, Page 6”

“Dr Alexander McCormick, of 125 Macquarie Street, and Dr Scot-Skirving, of Darlinghurst, have volunteered their services as surgeons, on condition, of course, that they are attached in the ordinary way to the second contingent of troops leaving New South Wales for service in the Transvaal. So far, they have not received any official communication from the Premier or Major General French regarding their offer, but both gentlemen are eager to proceed to the front and it is unofficially understood that their respective offers will be accepted today.

Dr Alexander McCormick has been a resident of Sydney, and also one of its best-known surgeons, for fully 16 years, In 1888 he arrived in Sydney to take up the position of demonstrator of anatomy at the Syndey University, at which institution he is now lecturer on surgery. He has been honorary surgeon to Prince Alfred Hospital since the year 1855. Dr McCormick who is a native of Scotland took his MB CHM at Edinburgh University in 1880, became MRCS in 1881, and carried off an MD degree at Edinburgh University in 1885. He is still a comparatively young man.”

“Morning Bulletin, 8th of November 1947, Page 8, Obituary”

“Sir Alexander McCormick, a giant figure in Australian surgery for more than half a century and a notable yachtsman, died at his home in Jersey, Channel Islands, last Saturday week. He was 91 on July 31.

“Sir Alexander was the most outstanding operating surgeon I ever saw,” said past-president of the Australasian College of Surgeons. “His intimate knowledge of anatomy was allied with extraordinary gift in diagnosis. He was at home in operations in any part of the body. Men who specialise in one particular operation may have become more skilled in it than MacCormack, but I never saw another surgeon so diversely skilled. He had a dominating influence on surgery which extended beyond New South Wales to other States. A distinguished contemporary said of him that he had the sixth sense that animals possess to such a high degree.”

Men who studied under him have said that from the point of view of the student Sir Alexander was not a good teacher, because he was so rapid and advanced in his work that he left everyone else plodding miles behind.

He would take great pains, however, with anyone who had a grasp of his subject. Senior surgeons from other States would come to Sydney to watch him work and to learn from him.

He was a man of tremendous physical energy. He would travel to a case in the country, be up all night and on his return to the city go straight to hospital and begin operating. One doctor who worked with him described him as one of the greatest surgeons Australia has been blesses with. Those who knew him very well say that though he made a large fortune from his tremendous practice he never charged a fee which a patient could not afford. He had a big free list, both for his private hospital and as a surgeon.

He had a deep love of the sea. Always a keen yachtsman, he was at different times commodore of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Squadron. His most notable yachting exploit was to sail his 58-ton schooner Ada from England to Australia via Panama, at the age of 71.

His eldest son, Alexander Campbell MacCormick, was killed in action in 1916, at Loos while serving as Lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

In 1926 Sir Alexander presented the Presbyterian Church his 40 bed hospital, The Terraces, Paddington, which was renamed the Scottish Hospital. It was given as a memorial to Lieutenant MacCormick. In that year Sir Alexander was created a KCMG.

Sir Alexander and Lady MacCormick were in London on holiday from their home in Jersey just before the Germans occupied the Channel Islands, so they spent the remainder of the war years in England.”

Courtesy of Samuel Cox