Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

KENIHAN Robert Austin ED

MB BS, FRCOG, FRACOG

1923 – 2012

Robert Austin Kenihan ws born in Adelaide on 1st February 1923, the son of Raphael Leo Kenihan and Glen, nee Hewitt. His father, a medical practitioner who served in WW1, was awarded a Military Cross in the battle of Messines.  Kenihan was educated at Rostrevor College and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1946.  During his university years Kenihan excelled in sport and gained a university Blue in lacrosse, as well as enjoying cricket, swimming and golf.  Following his graduation he completed his internship at the RAH and joined the AAMC and served in BCOF in Japan from 1948 to 1949. He was posted as an RMO in the 67th Inf Bn, which became 3 Bn RAR in November1948. The Royal prefix was given in March 1949.  After returning from Japan Kenihan married Mary Elizabeth Denny, in 1949, and they subsequently had six children.  He continued in the CMF serving in 3 FdAmb from 1949 to 1967, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  He was issued the Australia Service Medal 45-76, the BCOF Japan Medal 1946 – 1952 and awarded the Efficiency Decoration and clasp.

Kenihan travelled to England on a year’s scholarship to study at Saint Mary’s Hospital for Women and Children, in Manchester. He achieved his MRCOG, in London, in 1953.  He returned to Australia and worked as an Honorary Clinical Assistant at the RAH and TQEH.  He moved to the QVMH on Fullarton Road, as a honorary obstetrician and gynaecologist, in 1956 The QVMH merged with the ACH, in North Adelaide, March 1989, and became the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (WCH).

Kenihan became a Senior Visiting Medical Specialist and Head of the Obstetric Unit in 1971 until his retirement in 1988. However, after retirement he was made Emeritus Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the WCH, from 1992 to 1996.  During this time he served as a medicolegal officer at the WCH and as a director on the hospital board.  Kenihan also had a long association with Calvary Hospital in North Adelaide, and as a committed Catholic served many years on the hospital’s ethics committee.

Kenihan retired completely in the late 1990s and lived at Port Noarlunga in his home Kenwest, and enjoyed stamp collecting, gardening and being a home handyman. After a long illness Robert Austin Kenihan died on 3rd February 2012.  He was survived by his wife Mary and their six children and sixteen grand and great grandchildren.  

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears II: Medical Practitioners of South Australia on Active Service After World War 2 to Vietnam 1945-197.

Summers, Swain, Jelly, Verco

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD