Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Rank at retirement was Colonel

Peter Dudley Byrne was born on 17th September 1941, in Adelaide. He was the eldest child of Dr Alfred Dudley Byrne, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, and Roxy, nee Sims. Her brother, Eric Sims was a well-known senior paediatrician at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. His father came from the Southern Yorke Peninsula and was the first Medical Superintendent of Northfield Infectious Diseases Hospital 1932-35. He was one of the first three senior obstetricians at TQEH in 1954 and later was senior gynaecologist RAH. His mother was academically gifted and multi-talented. She played hockey for South Australia and Australia, and for many years the leading actress with the Adelaide Repertory Theatre Company. Byrne also came from a family with a strong military background.  His grandfather Roy Sims serving at the rank of lieutenant as a dental surgeon in WW1.  Two uncles were assault pioneers on the Western Front in France.  Byrne’s father served in WW2 first as RMO 2/27 Bn then on promotion to major, he helped raise 2/8 FdAmb and was OC B Coy.  When in North Africa, in March 1941, he took B Coy the farthest west and south in Libya almost to El Agheila, in the Gulf of Sirte.  An excellent navigator, he avoided the Afrika Korps Derna ambush and took B Coy intact overland to Tobruk.  Under siege in Tobruk, he injured a leg and was medically evacuated by sea to Egypt.  He later returned to Tobruk.  Early in 1942, he was promoted Lt Col to command and re-establish 2/7 Fd Amb 19 Bde 6 Div which had been decimated in Crete.  He succeeded very well until late 1944 when he was downgraded medically.

Byrne was conceived serendipitously, in December 1940, when German naval mines, laid off the southern Australian coast delayed the departure of the 9 Div convoy by 3 weeks.  He was educated at Hindmarsh Primary School and won a scholarship to St Peters College.  He served for 4 years in the Cadet Unit and was ultimately the Cadet RSM.  He was a rifle marksman and an Earl Roberts and Jake Rudall Trophy shooter.  He was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to study medicine at the University of Adelaide.  While at university he enlisted in AUR and after 3 years was commissioned as a lieutenant.  Later he served briefly as an Ops Staff Officer HQ 9 TF (9 Bde).  When he was doing his residency at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, in 1966, he was posted as a captain to 3 FdAmb. Over the next 18 months he trained the unit in Counter Revolutionary Warfare.  Byrne then travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland in late 1968 to attend the Primary Course Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.  Militarily he was detached 205 Gen Hosp RAMC.  Byrne was promoted Major, in April 1969, and volunteered for service in Vietnam.  He returned to Australia, on a cargo ship via the Cape of Good Hope. During the next 10 days in Adelaide, he was equipped and multiple weapons tested, and flew to Vietnam in July 1969.  He was posted DADMS HQ AFV in Saigon because of his infantry staff experience.  This was for six months, the latter three months without an ADMS. He carried out all military staff and medical functions as the only Australian or New Zealand medical officer in Saigon (military or civilian).  He was co-opted to act as the MO of the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam (AATTV).  This involved travel to I Corps near the de-militarized zone on multiple occasions to assess and examine team members often under difficult situations.  Byrne was transferred 1 Aust FdHosp Vung Tau, in February 1970, as the Medical Administrative Officer.  During this time, he was seconded to 8 FdAmb, Nui Dat and on return was appointed 2 IC 1 Aust FdHosp for the last three months of his tour.  He returned to Australia in late August 1970 as the MO of an eventful C130 RAAF aero med evac flight because of depressurisation. There were no RAAF MO’s available.

Byrne returned to Edinburgh in 1971, and passed the Royal College of Surgeons primary examination.  He spent the summer as clinical assistant in charge of casualty department of the Royal Victoria Hospital, in Folkestone, Kent.  He returned to Australia, in late 1971, on a cargo ship via the Panama Canal. Once back in Australia, in early 1972, he started as Registrar in General Surgery at the RAH and he had the privilege of working for Dr Allan Campbell DSO, who was surgeon HMAS Vendetta 1941 on which his father had been evacuated from Tobruk.  Byrne was transferred to Modbury Hospital, in 1975, under the aegis of Dr Donald Beard and passed his final Fellowship Exams for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He returned to the UK for the fourth time, in early 1976, as a Registrar in General Surgery at Southmead and Frenchay Hospitals, in Bristol, and later as Senior Surgical Registrar of the gastroenterology unit until late 1978.  He was detached again to the British Army and was posted as OC Surg Div 219 Gen Hosp British Army of the Rhine.  This included attending the NATO Exercises in 1977, and demonstrating field surgical equipment at the Aldershot Military Tattoo, in 1978.  Byrne had the great privilege of being presented to and talking with Her Majesty, the Queen at a military demonstration in Bristol in 1977. He returned to Australia as Senior Registrar in General Surgery TQEH, in 1979.  He was then appointed a visiting surgeon and subsequently a senior visiting general surgeon at TQEH from 1981 to 2007. 

His military career continued, and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, in 1979, and posted 2IC 3 AGH.  Over the next nine years, he was instrumental in re-establishing and developing the unit while 2IC, then Admin Comd and then on promotion to Colonel as CO of 3 AGH from 1985 to 1988.  3 AGH became the largest medical unit in the Australian Army with a strength of 240 including 50 officers (23 MO’s) based on 3 mobile surgical teams with support staff, all from South Australia.  He recruited personally, many of the MO’s.  This type of unit had not been on the Army ORBAT since 1945.  He was also senior surgeon for Exercises Kangaroo 81, 83 and 89.  Byrne’s further career continued with posting as Colonel Medical DGAHS Staff 1989 and then with appointment as Director Medical Services (DMS) 4 MD (SA) from 1990 to 1993.  As DMS he planned and ran multiple exercises including a notable “Medical Problems of Armoured Warfare” using Leopard Tanks on the Murray Bridge Range.  He was also prominent in recruiting MO’s at short notice for UN Ops in Rwanda. Surgically, his administrative skills were in use as Secretary SA State Committee RACS from 1981 to 1984 and as Secretary organising committee Annual Scientific Congress RACS, in 1986, in Adelaide. He was Supervisor of Surgical Training TQEH and SA Branch Councillor AMA and again a member RACS State Committee 1994-97.  Other positions held included Examiner in Surgery Australian Medical Council for foreign medical graduates from 1994 to 1998.  He organised the Section of Military Surgery ASC RACS 1993 in Adelaide. Ultimately in 2006 he was the Official military Surgery Visitor RACS ASC Sydney.

His military career continued with AHQ Canberra postings from 1994 to 1998 as Col Med then Deputy Director General Army Health Services (DDGAHS) and finally as Deputy Director General Defence Health Service – Army.  Byrne’s last active posting was UN Mil Surgeon East Timor 2001 with 3 HSB, formerly 3 AGH from Adelaide.  During his military career he received multiple Honours and Awards including; the Geoffrey Harkness Medal 1987 for outstanding contribution to the RAAMC, Member of the Order of Australia Military Division 1992, Honorary Surgeon HE Governor General 1990-93, First Australian to receive the Michael DeBakey International Military Surgeons Award US Armed Forces 2003 (for command and leadership). Byrne retired from the Army in 2006 after a career spanning 50 years during which he was awarded the Australian Active Service Medal 1945-75, the Vietnam Medal, the Australian Active Service Medal (East Timor) 2001, the Reserve Forces Decoration 1978 (with 4 Clasps), the Efficiency Decoration 1974, the National Medal, the Australian Defence Medal and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.

He has had many outside interests including ornithology, military and medical history and sport.  From 1980 to 1998 he was in an honorary capacity, MO SANFL (West Torrens & Woodville West Torrens Football Clubs), and also MO SACA Adelaide Oval including the Test Cricket Team.  He is active in the RSL and is on the Board of the “Exercise Trojans Trek” organisation involved in the mental and psychological rehabilitation of young servicemen and women.  Currently, since 2007 he is semi-retired and with his partner Robyn, resides in the Southern Flinders Ranges.

Sources

Blood, Sweat and Fears II: Medical Practitioners of South Australia on Active Service After World War 2 to Vietnam 1945-1975.

Summers, Swain, Jelly, Verco. Open Book Howden, Adelaide 2016

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD