Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

RENNIE Henry Charles Cadell MB BS MRCS (Eng) LRCP (Lond)

1891-1925

Henry Charles Cadell Rennie was born in Adelaide on 10th April 1891 the youngest child of Professor Edward Henry Rennie, the Angas Professor of Chemistry at the University of Adelaide, and his wife, Agnes Alison, nee Cadell. Rennie was educated at the Queen's School in North Adelaide and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide where he was the Everard scholar of 1912. He was a house surgeon at the Adelaide Hospital in 1913 followed by some time at the Broken Hill Hospital where he was assistant to Dr Birks. After returning to Adelaide he decided to travel to England for post-graduate experience and took his MRCS LRCP about the time of the declaration of war.

Rennie joined the RAMC as a lieutenant and served with the 52nd FdAmb in France. His time in the trenches resulted in him developing the ‘malady’ that was to later take his life. While never specified, it is presumed he developed tuberculosis at this time. He was invalided back to Australia in 1916. He was given the rank of honorary captain on 15th May 1918.

He was appointed Medical Superintendent of the Bedford Park Sanatorium in June 1917 and later undertook private work at the Nunyara Sanatorium at Belair. His health began to fail and he returned to the Bedford Park Sanatorium until ill health forced him to relinquish this appointment. He was untiring in his efforts for the 'inmates' of the Bedford Park Sanatorium and Myrtle Bank Institution which gained him the love and esteem of all who knew of the skill and sympathy in his ministrations. To the Tubercular Soldiers Association and the Tubercular Soldiers Aid Society he was a valuable helper having given great assistance in framing appeal cases for the Repatriation Department. Indeed, he lobbied forcefully on behalf of those with tuberculosis: he reported 123 beds for tuberculosis sufferers in South Australia of which only 64 were available to the public when there were 500-600 new cases each year. He wrote “The neglect of the State and medical profession to make an organised effort to cope with the spread of tuberculosis has prompted me to draw attention to the existing  provision for sufferers from this disease and what seems to me its inadequacy”….as a State we are grossly neglecting our duty”. He is described as a man with a loveable character, a clear, original and deep thinker who kept himself abreast of the most recent treatment of tuberculosis. He enrolled for the Doctor of Medicine (MD) at University of Adelaide in 1923. He was a keen student of animal husbandry and bred cocker spaniels and Jersey cattle; he exhibited successfully in a variety of shows and was successful in obtaining prizes. Henry Charles Cadell Rennie died, aged 34, on 2nd September 1925 at Victor Harbour having moved there 12 months earlier. Doubtless his health precluded completion of his doctorate. His father, Professor Edward Henry Rennie, died 13 months later on 8th January 1927.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australia, who Served in World War 1. 

Verco, Summers, Swain, Jelly. Open Books Howden, Adelaide 2014. 

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD