Dr James Stewart

James Stewart James Stewart was born in County Tyrone, Ireland in 1830. The son of a farmer, he gained his Licentiate, Royal College of Surgeons in 1852 and, in November of that year, migrated to Australia as a ship’s surgeon. Settling in Ballarat, he became Surgeon to Her Majesty’s Troops and later the Government Vaccinator. In 1854, in partnership with physician James Sutherland, he set up one of two early private hospitals in Ballarat: a 12-bed tent hospital on the Gravel Pits, Bakery Hill. This hospital, and another at Red Hill, served sick and injured miners until the Ballarat Hospital opened two years later. During the Eureka Uprising in December 1854, Dr Stewart attended the amputation of rebel leader Peter Lalor’s left arm.

Upon the opening of the Ballarat Hospital in 1856, Dr Stewart was elected an Honorary Surgeon, a position he held in 1856-57, 1862-63 and 1867-69. He was elected to the inaugural Ballarat Council from 1856-62, becoming Chairman of the Municipality in 1858-59. After further study in Ireland in 1864, he returned to Ballarat. Dr Stewart became financially successful through his investments in gold mining companies and was a significant contributor to the Ballarat community.

He was a foundation member and Secretary and Treasurer of the Ballarat Medico-Surgical Society in 1854. He lobbied for the establishment of schools in Ballarat, and served as an honorary doctor at the Ballarat Female Refuge in its early days. Dr Stewart was a foundation member of the Mechanics’ Institute in 1859, and a Director of the Gas Company and the Bank of Victoria in Ballarat. In 1869, he left Australia for England and lived in Hertfordshire and Castlerock, Ireland until his death in 1906. He left an estate valued at ?134,000 with numerous benefactions including institutions in Ballarat, theological colleges and ?25,624 to the University of Melbourne.

Ballarat in 1855, when James Stewart was one of the first people to provide medical services to miners.    Ballarat Hospital, where Stewart was an Honorary Surgeon, opened in 1856.  Dr James Stewart's signature appears on a vaccination certificate issued in Ballarat in 1857.

Bequest to University of Melbourne

In 1909, the medical school at the University of Melbourne received its largest benefaction to that date, when Dr James Stewart bequeathed ?25,624 to establish scholarships in anatomy, medicine and surgery. With the income from the estate, the Council of the University appointed three Stewart Scholars. In the case of anatomy the scholar was a full-time demonstrator, whilst in medicine and surgery they acted as assistants to the lecturers. The lecturers in medicine and surgery were called the Stewart Lecturers, a practice that remained in force until Professorial Chairs were established in 1955.

The University of Melbourne Medical School in c.1875, separated from the rest of the university by a lake.

Later, other Stewart Lecturers were appointed in anatomy, pathology and physiology. Funds were also provided for the provisioning of a Department of Neurology in the Anatomy School, as well as equipment for the Anatomy and Physiology Departments. Also established was the Stewart Lecture, to be given every second year on a subject of national importance. Until the establishment of the Chairs of Medicine and Surgery, the University relied on the goodwill of these senior physicians and surgeons to teach undergraduate medical students.

The ‘new’ Medical School at the University of Melbourne, c. 1908.

These Stewart Lecturers were in effect the heads of clinical departments, responsible to the University for the minutiae of teaching and administration. However, they had none of the status of professor and received in return only a nominal salary.

By the mid 1930s, the University Council agreed that departments of medicine and surgery would be created if The Royal Melbourne Hospital could provide clinical wards for their use. Lengthy, war-interrupted negotiations for the creation of these departments commenced and, in 1950, the RMH’s Committee of Management and the governing bodies of other teaching hospitals agreed to provide beds and accommodation for professors of medicine and surgery when the University required them. By 1952, negotiations had concluded and the University Council approved the appointments of the professors subject to finance. The Council authorised ?15,000 in 1953 and a public appeal for funds, “The King George VI Memorial Fund for the Advancement of Medical Education in Victoria”, was launched. By May 1954, ?25,000 had been raised.

Applications for the Chair of Medicine closed in July 1954 and those for Surgery in October 1954. The new appointments were reported to the University Faculty of Medicine meeting of March 1955 and both new professors, Richard Lovell in Medicine and Maurice Ewing in Surgery, arrived in Melbourne from England in September 1955.

Stewart Lecturers in Medicine and Surgery 1909-1955

Stewart Lecturers in Medicine

1909-21    Henry Maudsley (on war service leave 1915-18) 

                    George Thomas Howard (acting war-time appointment  1915-18)

1921-36    Leslie Scott Latham

1937-45    Stewart Osburn Cowen

1946          Wilberforce Stephen Newton

1947-48     Leslie Everton Hurley

1948           Ewen Downie

1949-55     John Gerald Hayden

Stewart Lecturers in Surgery

1909-21     Frederick Dougan Bird (on war service leave 1915-17)

                      Basil Kilvington (acting war-time appointment 1915-17)

1922-35     Basil Kilvington

1936-46     Thomas Ernest Hurley (on war service leave 1940-45)

                      William Allan Hailes (acting war-time appointment 1940)

                      Clifford Henry Coomer Searby (acting war-time appointment 1941-45)

1947-48      Hibbert Alan Stephen Newton

1949-55      Albert Ernest Coates