Thomas Ernest Victor Hurley KBE CMG CB (1888 - 1958)

Born 3 Jan 1888 in Ceres, Victoria (Australia)

Husband of Elsie May (Crowther) Hurley — married 1 Jun 1919 in Westminster, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Died 17 Jul 1958 at age 70 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

Thomas Hurley KBE CMG CB is Notable.

Thomas Hurley KBE CMG CB is an Anzac who served in World War One.

Sir (Thomas) Victor Hurley KBE CMG CB FRCS MD MS was an Australian surgeon and medical administrator who served as a senior medical officer in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War and Director-General of Medical Services in the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War.

Formative years

Thomas Ernest Victor Hurley was born on 3rd January 1888 in Ceres, Victoria (Australia). Victor, as he was known, was the eldest son of Victorian-born parents Thomas Hurley, a school teacher, and Mary Elizabeth. ^[1] Educated at various primary schools determined by his father's postings, he won scholarships to Wesley College, and to Queen's College, University of Melbourne.

Victor graduated Bachelor of Medicine (MB) in 1909, Bachelor of Surgery (BS) in 1910, Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 1912 and Master of Surgery (MS) in 1913.

In 1910 he was appointed resident medical officer at the (Royal) Melbourne Hospital (RMH). It was the beginning of an association with that institution that was to span almost fifty years. In 1914 he commenced private practice in Collins Street.

First World War

Thomas Hurley KBE CMG CB is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Australian Imperial Force 1914-1920
2nd Field Ambulance, 2nd Australian General Hospital, AIF Headquarters

On 20th August 1914, Victor was commissioned as a medical officer (Captain) in the Australian Army Medical Corps. ^[2] Volunteering for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), he sailed for Egypt in October. He served at Gallipoli from April to September 1915 with the 2nd Field Ambulance. Promoted temporary Lieutenant Colonel in March 1916 (substantive 1917), he performed staff duties at AIF Headquarters, London, in 1916-17. He was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the King's Birthday Honours 1917 ^[3] and Mentioned in Despatches (equivalent to today's Commendation for Gallantry) for his 'tact, ability and strenuous work'. In 1917-18 he was on the Western Front, principally with the 2nd Australian General Hospital. He was demobilisd from the AIF on 1st November 1919 ^[2] and resigned his Commonwealth Military Force commission on 11th February 1920.

Between wars

Before leaving England, Victor had become a Fellow (1918) of the Royal College of Surgeons, London.

On 10th June 1919 in St James' parish church, Westminster, Victor married Elsie Crowther, who had travelled to London as a member of a Voluntary Aid Detachment during the war. ^[4] Back in Melbourne, the couple bought a house in South Yarra, from which they moved in 1926 to a larger one in Toorak to accommodate their growing family.

Victor's surgical ability soon won him additional responsibilities, as lecturer and examiner in surgery at Melbourne Uni, founding secretary (1920-23) of the Surgical Association of Melbourne and assistant to the surgeon of the Victoria Police. In 1928, he took over that latter position and held it until 1956. In 1921 he was elected to the council of the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association (BMA), on which he served for the rest of his life, apart from a short interval during the Second World War.

He was a member (1923-48) of the Charities Board of Victoria and a foundation member (1927) of the (Royal) Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS). In 1927 he was made honorary surgeon to in-patients at RMH. He was dean of its clinical school in 1929-36. Victor was appointed Stewart lecturer in surgery (1936-46) at the university. He chaired (1936-46) the board of examiners in surgery.

Second World War

Thomas Hurley KBE CMG CB is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Royal Australian Air Force 1940-1945
Director-General RAAF Medical Service

In 1939-40 he was chairman the Red Cross Society of Australia, resigning in order to take the post of Director (Director-General from January 1943) of Medical Services, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) 4th June 1940. ^[5]

The infant RAAF Medical Service had been controlled by the director-general of army medical services. Victor developed an autonomous organisation capable of meeting wartime needs. One of his earliest actions was to recommend the formation of the RAAF Nursing Service. He recruited large numbers of medical officers; there being more than five hundred by 1944, reinforced by part-time consultants throughout Australia. The first RAAF hospitals were established, initially at Laverton and Ascot Vale, and at Richmond, New South Wales.

In late 1940 Victor instigated and thereafter chaired the Flying Personnel Research Committee to study problems in aviation medicine. Having sent RAAF officers to Britain to learn Royal Air Force methods, he set up rehabilitation centres which helped air-crew to overcome major surgical, orthopaedic and neuro-psychiatric disabilities, and to return to duty. His medical air-evacuation transport units shifted thousands of battle casualties in the South-West Pacific Area. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the New Year Honours 1945 ^[6] and, the war over and won, was demobilised on 6th December that year. ^[5]

No more wars

After the war Victor returned to his practice and was a consulting surgeon (from 1947) at RMH. He took on additional professional positions: Victorian representative on the Federal council of the BMA in Australia, vice-president (president from 1950) of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research, president (1947) of the Medical Legal Society of Victoria, vice-president (1947-51) of RACS and president (1947-57) of RMH. In 1948 he chaired the surgery section of the sixth Australasian Medical Congress, held in Perth.

As president of BMA in 1949-51, he was a conciliatory negotiator between the association and the Chifley government over the Pharmaceutical Benefits Act (1947) which was a modest first step towards a national health service. A proponent of a national insurance scheme, he was sympathetic to the proposals of the minister for health, N E McKenna, but he faithfully represented the views of BMA.

Victor was created Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the New Year Honours 1950. ^[7]

In 1951-53 he was president of RACS. On his retirement as president of RMH, the hospital established the Victor Hurley Research Fund. He was president of the Naval and Military Club, and a member of both the Melbourne Club and the Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

In later life his home was at Kew, and he treasured holidays with his family at their seaside cottage at Point Lonsdale.

Aged seventy years, he passed away of complications of emphysema on 17th July 1958 in the Royal Melbourne Hospital and was accorded a funeral with RAAF honours. ^[8] He was survived by his wife, two daughters and four sons.

Sources

1. ↑ Victoria Birth Index #/1888
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Australian War Memorial nominal roll: Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Ernest Victor Hurley; accessed 11 Nov 2023
3. ↑ Australian Honours: CMG; accessed 11 Nov 2023
4. ↑ [https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl UK FreeBMD Marriage Index Jun qtr 1919, vol 1a, page 1443; registered at St Martin, London
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Department of Veterans' Affairs nominal roll: 251159 Air Vice Marshal Thomas Ernest Victor Hurley; accessed 11 Nov 2023
6. ↑ Australian Honours: CB; accessed 11 Nov 2023
7. ↑ Australian Honours: KBE; accessed 11 Nov 2023
8. ↑ Victoria Death Index #8603/1958

see also

• Langmore, Diane. 'Hurley, Sir Thomas Ernest Victor (1888–1958)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1996; accessed online 11 Nov 2023.