Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

COLEBATCH John Houghton AO MD FRACP FRCP DCH

1909-2005

John Houghton Colebatch was born, on 6th June 1909, in Hawthorn, Victoria. He was the son of Walter John Colebatch and Hazel May, nee Richardson. His parents were originally from South Australia and were married there in 1908. His father was the chairman of the South Australian Land Board. He was educated at St Peter’s College and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide graduating MB BS in 1933. He went on to gain his Doctorate in Medicine at Melbourne University in 1937. He undertook a residency at the RAH, in 1934, before taking further training in Melbourne at the Children's Hospital and Melbourne Hospital in 1935 to 1936. He then went to England and worked at The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London, and obtained his DCH in 1938. Colebatch had developed a significant interest in paediatric oncology while in England. He returned to Australia, but Colebatch found little interest from his medical colleagues in paediatric oncology and much hostility to his enthusiasm to try life-prolonging treatment. He married Beatrice Betty Hillier on 2nd June 1939. She was the daughter of Herbert Edward Hillier and Annie, nee Webster of Brighton, Victoria.

Colebatch served in the AAMC reserve in the 1930s, and enlisted in the 2/AIF, in Royal Park, Victoria, in 1941. His next of kin was given as Beatrice Colebatch. He was posted to 2/12 AGH which was sent to Colombo, arriving there in October 1941. The 2/12 AGH remained in Colombo in support of the 9th Div until it was no longer needed and the unit returned to Australia on 1st January 1943. Colebatch was posted to the 2/4 AGH in September 1942. This unit returned to Australia from the Middle East before the 2/12 AGH. He was promoted to Major in 1945 and posted as Administrative Command of the 2/2 CCS and placed on the Reserve of Officers in 1946.

After the war Colebatch returned to Melbourne and continued to try and persuade the medical community to accept a different treatment for childhood cancer. A friendship between Colebatch and Sir Benjamin Rank had started in London, and while Rank’s dedication to the development of plastic surgery was readily accepted in Melbourne, Colebatch had a much harder task in getting changes in childhood cancer treatment. However, after Farber reported in the United States that temporary remissions could be achieved with drugs, a gradual improvement in the acceptance of his work occurred. By 1963 Colebatch chaired the first national controlled trial. All 12 paediatric hospitals in Australia joined the trial of different drugs.  In 1971, the Australian Medical Association awarded him the triennial prize “for outstanding work on childhood cancer”.  After his retirement from the hospital, in 1974, he took up a position with the Anti-Cancer Council. Here he set up a national cancer trial for breast cancer to establish whether and when to use less traumatic treatments than total mastectomy. He continued to work until he reached the age of 72; however, he remained in private practice into his mid-eighties. His energies were diverted to other things including chairing the Australian-Asian Association, which ran programs to help Asian students to settle into Melbourne.  He was also involved in the Studley Park Association, again as president, which campaigned for the preservation of the historic Willsmere Hospital and Abbotsford Convent. His wife, Beatrice of 52 years, who had virtually single-handed raised their children while he was preoccupied with his work, developed Alzheimer’s disease and needed to go into care. He visited her almost daily for 12 years. John Houghton Colebatch died on 20th November 2005, and was survived by his three children, a daughter Anne Caldwell, and sons Tony and Tim. He had 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

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