Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

PLUMMER Rex Grose MB BS FRACS

1914- 1994

Rex Grose Plummer was born on 7th May 1914, in Adelaide, South Australia. He was the only son of Dr Rex Garnet Plummer, a general practitioner in Norwood, SA, and Marion, nee Grose; his aunt, Dr Violet Plummer was the first woman graduate, in medicine, from the University of Adelaide and the first woman doctor to practise in SA. Plummer was educated at St Peter’s College and the University of Adelaide where he graduated MB BS in November 1937. He spent a house surgeon year at the RAH in 1938 and a year undertaking country general practice with Dr Myles Formby, at Strathalbyn, SA, in 1939. His many interests included tennis, cricket, and golf.

Plummer enlisted in the medical branch of the RAAF at the rank of flight lieutenant on 1st May 1940; at this time, he was living with his parents at 139 Kensington Road, Norwood. He was promoted to acting squadron leader on 1st November 1941, temporary squadron leader on 1st October 1942 and temporary wing commander from 1st July 1944. He was initially posted to RAAF Laverton on 7th May 1940 and remained within Australia, in Brisbane, Sandgate, and Sydney before being posted to Port Moresby, PNG on 29th November 1942 where he served until posted to Townsville on 4th March 1943. He then served in Geraldton, Mallala, Melbourne and Adelaide until discharged to take up a surgical registrar post at the RAH in 1945; he had had an appointment at the RAH from late 1944 while on extended leave from the RAAF. Plummer married Beryl Fraser, one of the twin daughters of James Alfred Fraser and Isabella, nee MacAskill of Port Broughton, SA, in the St Peter’s College Chapel, on 31st December 1942. An assessment by the Principal Medical Officer, No1 training Group, in June 1945, described Plummer ‘This officer has had both operational and base experience. He has shown himself to be thoroughly reliable and capable’.

Following the war, Plummer was a registrar in surgery at the RAH in 1945 to 1946 and, from 1946 to 1948, clinical assistant, ear nose and throat (ENT) surgery, at the ACH where he became assistant otologist in 1950. During 1946 he was also a part-time anatomy demonstrator at the University of Adelaide and anatomy lecturer to ex-service medical students. Travelling to England, he studied ear, nose and throat surgery at the Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in Gray’s Inn Road, London. He obtained his FRACS in 1951. Returning to Adelaide, he was appointed to specialist positions at the ACH and RAH, culminating in senior visiting specialist appointments, until his retirement in 1974. His particular interest was head and neck oncology, and he established this aspect of the discipline at the RAH. He was vice-president of the Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery from 1963 to 1965. He was widely read, and he and Beryl had a large group of friends. He played golf, off a single figure handicap at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club, billiards and snooker at the Naval, Military and Air Force Club of SA and enjoyed a frequent respite at the family beach house at Encounter Bay. A man of dry humour and laconic wit Plummer was renowned for the incisive remark which would now be described as a one-liner. Rex Grose Plummer died on 13th March 1994, after a long illness. He was survived by wife, Beryl, his son, Christopher, and daughter Margaret.

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