423

Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 1976, 29 : 423 424 ~, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam

Printed in The Netherlands

Obituary

E D W A R D G R A E M E ROBERTSON (1903 1975)

In almost every country affiliated to the World Federation of Neurology there will have been friends of Edward Graeme Robertson who will want to join in paying tribute to him following his sad death on 25 December 1975. A major contribution to scientific knowledge is what normally stands as a memorial to the name of famous men in medicine. The development of pneumoencephalography to the degree of perfection could be the monument to the name of Graeme Robertson. Less clearly seen and recognized is the influence of some men in shaping the course of human endeavour. The professional and humanitarian standard of neurology as practised today in the community of Australians, and maybe to no small extent in the more populous communities of some Asian countries, is probably the greater and more enduring memorial to Graeme Robertson. The lights in the streets and dwellings are closer to the people than the beacon on the hill. Born in Melbourne on 20th October 1903, school at Scotch College, graduation in medicine in the University of Melbourne with honours in 1927 and a Doctorate of Medicine in 1930, were milestones to London to become a Member of the Royal College of Physicians and House Physician and later Resident Medical Officer at Queen Square. There he formed some of his most treasured and life long friendships, including those with Denis Brinton and Derek Denny-Brown; he met his future wife, Jane Duce, and proved personally and professionally able to find and hold a place with the great neurologists there at that time - - Collier, Adie, Holmes, Riddoch, Walshe, Symonds,

424 Purdon Martin and Critchley, to name but a few. With Denny-Brown he made his first major contribution to neurology on the physiology of the bladder. This work and no doubt the recognition of his personal worth by his seniors and peers, a,~ well as junior appointments to the famous St. Bartholomew's Hospital and the new Post Graduate School at Hammersmith in 1934, all surely put him firmly on the first rung of the London neurological ladder, had he chosen to stay. Instead he returned to Melbourne. A decision of loyalty to the Royal Melbourne Hospital where he was appointed not as neurologist, of which there was none, but as a general physician. And so began the real contribution which has become his monument the bringing to this other side of the earth the discipline and practice of a school of thought, especially in clinical neurology, which had been developed in London at Queen Square to a state as near to perfection as it is ever likely to get, and which he had absorbed into his whole being. A quiet conviction of purpose and a capacity for discernment of what really matters lay behind that decision to return and all that he subsequently did. For almost the whole of the rest of his life he gave at least half of his time in honorary service to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Royal Children's, the Royal Women's, the Royal Eye & Ear and numerous other similar appointments. In the system existing these purely honorary appointments involved not only the care and investigation of patients and a consultation service to fellow honoraries but also the whole responsibility for the University undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, and any investigational work. In his "private" time he had to earn his living in practice in the city as a purely consultant and strictly neurological physician. In all these activities it was only in later years that there were any trained assistants and more than meagre facilities. Yet the standards set and achieved in both honorary and private work were a recognized example of far-reaching influence not only in neurology but in Australian medicine in general. The all-absorbing demands on a leader in such a setting are rarely understood and appreciated fully by those who have not been themselves involved in such a system. Merely to list his achievements over those years would fill the space of an ordinary obituary. Sixty-nine scientific publications, the vast majority as sole worker and author, include his remarkable perfection of the pneumoencephalographic study of the brain, undoubtedly overall the most informative investigation of cerebral disease for most of those 40 years. In his work Graeme and his neurosurgical colleague, Reg Hopper. his cousin, set another example that of full mutual understanding and collaboration between physician and surgeon which has happily become the general rule in Australia. Together they formed a joint department in the new Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1944 when Graeme was belatedly given the title of Honorary Neurologist. With Leonard Cox he led in founding the Australian Association of Neurologists, of which he was later President and then Honorary Member Emeritus - its highest honour. (More about this has been said in the Proceedings of the A ustralian Association of Neurologists, Volume l 2. 1975). And so again his personal influence led in shaping neurology and neurologists in Australia and their close association with our neurological scientists. With generous financial aid from the United States Professor Okinaka and Graeme Roberson led in the formation of the Asian and Oceanian Association of Neurology in 1962 and Graeme was President of the Second Congress in Melbourne in 1966. His counsel and wisdom were sought and accepted in various committees of the World Federation of Neurology of which he became a Vice President and a welcome friend and participant at many World Congresses. All this he did with the quietness and modesty which brought him respect and friendship throughout the world. As if that were not enough his discerning eye and perceptive mind always had room for beautiful things of man's creation. And so grew his hobby and fame as a photographer and writer on Australian historical architecture and furniture, brought together in 10 superb books, already collector's pieces and one still to come - - prepared together with his daughter Joan who shared his gifts and skill as no-one else could. Most of these books together create a unique and beautiful record of ornamental cast iron which was so characteristic of Melbourne architecture in the second half of last century and had remained unrecorded and unappreciated. Apart from their own innate beauty these books, by a neurologist, have filled a blind spot in architectural literature. In his personal life privacy and peace were sacred. What Jane meant to him is contained in a few simple words of his own in one of his later books, 'To my wife for whom my books are an inadequate memorial. Her qualities made their writing possible". To help fill the gap left by her sudden death a few years before him, his daughter Joan gave her love and devotion. To Joan and Denis we offer our sincere sympathy, and pay tribute to their remarkable father. John A. Game

Obituary: Edward Graeme Robertson (1903-1975).

423 Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 1976, 29 : 423 424 ~, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam Printed in The Netherlands Obitua...
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