John Smith Purdy, Medical Officer & Lieutenant-Colonel (1872-1936)

MUSEUM VICTORIA COLLECTIONS

Medal - Purdy Memorial, 1936

Photographer: Rodney Start

Source: Museum Victoria

Copyright Museum Victoria I All Rights Reserved (Licensed as All Rights Reserved)

li John Smith Purdy, Medical Officer & Lieutenant­Colonel (1872-1936)

Page 1 of3

John Smith Purdy was a distinguished health worker who worked as metropolitan medical officer of health in Sydney. He was influential in slum clearance and contributed to Sydney's falling death rate

through improvements in sanitation and food purity.

Purdy was born in 1872 in Morpeth, England. He was educated at the Universities of Aberdeen (MB,

CM 1898; MD 1904) and Cambridge (Diploma of public health 1903). He worked briefly as surgeon at

the Otaki Hospital, New Zealand, then became a surgeon-captain in Boer War, serving in the 6th and 1Oth New Zealand Mounted Rifles. After the war he worked in various London hospitals, moving

briefly into general practice in Liverpool.

In 1905-06 he worked for the Quarantine Service of Egypt, then moved to New Zealand as district medical officer in Auckland. In 1910 he became chief health officer in Tasmania, and three years later became metropolitan medical officer of health and city health officer in Sydney. When World

http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/articles/2151 11110/2016

John Smith Purdy, Medical Officer & Lieutenant-Colonel (1872-1936)

War I broke out he again seNed, this time with the Australian Army Medical Corps as major, lieutenant-colonel and acting colonel.

Page 2 of3

After the war Purdy lectured in sanitary law at Sydney Technical College. In 1921 he became President of the Health Society of New South Wales, as well as contributing to the Australian Association for Fighting Venereal Disease and the Town Planning Association of New South Wales. Thereafter he became Chair of the Public Health Association of New South Wales and State President of the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia. He was also active in the Boy Scouts' Association, deputy chair of the StJohn Ambulance Association and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1933 he received the French Medaille d'Honneur des Epidemies.

Purdy died in 1936 and Sydney Technical College issued a medal in his honour in the same year. (NU 20724-5).

References: University of Melbourne Bright Spares website

http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P002504b.htm <http:/ /www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P002504b.htm> , accessed 24 Sep 2003.

More Information

Medals, World War I Keywords

Localities Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, England, United Kingdom, New Zealand

Authors

Article types

Cite this page

Ms Deborah Tout-Smith

Party

Tout-Smith, D. (2003) John Smith Purdy, Medical Officer & Lieutenant-Colonel (1872-1936) in Museum Victoria Collections http://collections.museumvictoria.eom.au/articles/2151 Accessed 11 October 2016

Rights

We support the open <http://opendefinition.org> release of data and information about our collections.

(§) (!) <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>

Text content on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0> licence

Authors

Ms Deborah Tout-Smith Senior Curator of Home & Community Life at Museum Victoria.

http:/ I collections.museumvictoria. com. au/ articles/2151 11/10/2016

John Smith Purdy, Medical Officer & Lieutenant-Colonel (1872-1936) Page 3 of3

Museum Victoria I GPO Box 666 Melbourne 3001, Victoria, Australia I Bookings & Enquiries 13 11 02

The source Code for Museum Victoria Collections is available on GitHub under the MIT License.

<https://github.com/museumvictoria/collections-online>

http:/ /collections.museumvictoria.com.au/articles/2151 11110/2016

07/10/2016 Biography- John Smith Purdy- Australian Dictionary of Biography

Obituaries Australia People Australia Indigenous Australia Women Australia Labour Australia

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Purdy, John Smith {1872-1936)

by C. J. Cummins

This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, (MUP), 1988

John Smith Purdy (1872-1936), health officer and soldier, was born on 31

January 1872 at Morpeth, Northumberland, England, son of George

Purdy, market gardener, and his wife Frances, nee Smith. He was an

exhibitioner and school captain at the Grammar School of King Edward VI,

Morpeth, before studying medicine at Marischal College, University of

Aberdeen (M.B., C.M., 1898; M.D., 1904). He soon joined his older

brother James in New Zealand and was briefly surgeon at Otaki hospital.

In January 1901 he went to the South African War as surgeon-captain in

the 6th and 1Oth New Zealand Mounted Rifles.

Demobilized in England, after working in various London hospitals Purdy

obtained the diploma of public health (Cambridge, 1903) and his

Aberdeen M.D. for a thesis on the treatment of syphilis. On 1 December

1904 in London, he married Emily Crake, daughter of a leather merchant.

Briefly in general practice at Liverpool, he joined the Quarantine Service of

John Smith Purdy (1872-1936),

by unknown photographer

Australian War Memorial, H00086

Egypt as Foreign Office nominee in 1905. In Cairo he was associated with Dr E. T. Ross and his anti-malaria

work. Next year he was in charge of the quarantine hospitals at El Tor, Sinai, for pilgrims returning from

Mecca.

Returning to New Zealand in February 1907, Purdy was district medical officer, Auckland, but, seeing no

future in New Zealand in competition with his brother, became chief health officer in Tasmania in 1910. He

originated a school medical service and helped to have food laws and inspections stiffened. In 1913 he was

appointed jointly metropolitan medical officer of health in Sydney, responsible to the chief medical officer J. A.

Thompson, and city health officer, responsible to the Sydney Municipal Council.

Enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1914, Major Purdy sailed with the 1st Division, serving

with the Australian Army Medical Corps as specialist sanitary officer for the Australian forces in Egypt in 1915

and, promoted lieutenant-colonel on 1 January 1916, at the 3rd Australian General Hospital, in charge of

sanitation at Tel-ei-Kebir, a camp of over 30,000 Australians and New Zealanders. From October he

commanded the 1Oth Field Ambulance and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for conspicuous

gallantry in tending the sick and wounded at Messines, Belgium, in mid-1917. Having been mentioned in

dispatches, he commanded (as temporary colonel) the 3rd A.G.H., Abbeville, France, from January to June

1918.

Back in Sydney in September, Purdy used his military experience in the campaigns against the influenza

pandemic of 1919 and two minor outbreaks of plague next year. From 1919 he lectured on sanitary law at

Sydney Technical College. Otherwise his duties were primarily administrative, dealing with established public

http://adb.anu.edu.au!biography/purdy-john-sm ith-8132 1/2

07/10/2016 Biography- John Smith Purdy -Australian Dictionary of Biography

health services of the traditional sanitation type. In his annual reports as city health officer to the Sydney

Municipal Council he emphasized his activities in slum clearance and provision of a healthier city. He was

particularly proud of Sydney's falling death rate which he attributed mainly to improved sanitation and purity of

foodstuffs. He published over twenty articles, mainly in the Transactions of the Australian Medical Congress,

the Australasian Medical Gazette and the Medical Journal of Australia. As president of the Health Society of

New South Wales in 1921, he inaugurated Health Week and remained chairman of its committee until 1936.

He was also chairman of the Public Health Association of New South Wales, president of the Australian

Association for Fighting Venereal Disease and of the Town Planning Association of New South Wales, and

influential in formulating slum clearance programmes.

Purdy retained links with the Australian Army Medical Service, transferring to the reserve as colonel in 1932.

Active in the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia, he was State president in 1929. He

also devoted much time to the Boy Scouts' Association, receiving its Silver Wolf badge from Lord Baden

Powell, and to the StJohn Ambulance Association; its deputy chairman, he was an honorary associate of the

Order of StJohn of Jerusalem. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1911 ), the Royal

Geographical Society of London (1903-09), the Royal Sanitary Institute, London (1915), and of the Society of

Medical Officers of Health, England (1930) and was awarded the French Medaille d'honneur des epidemies in

1933.

Remembered by his colleagues as austere, sincere and dedicated, he was engrossed in public health and

remote from his colleagues in general practice. A member of the Imperial Service Club, Sydney, he lived at

Bellevue Hill. He died in St Luke's Hospital on 26 July 1936 and was cremated with Anglican rites. His wife,

two sons and a daughter survived him: his elder son Cecil became a notable chess-player.

Select • A. G. Butler (ed), Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services in the War 1914-18, vols 1, 2

(Melb, 1930, Canb, 1940)

• London Gazette, 22 Dec 1917

• Medical Journal of Australia, 12 Sept 1936

• Reveille (Sydney), 1 Nov 1936

• Sydney Morning Herald, 5 Apr 1921, 3 June, 18 Nov 1924, 2 Aug 1930, 7 July 1936.

C. J. Cummins, 'Purdy, John Smith (1872-1936)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu .edu .au/biography/purdy-john-smith-8132/text14207, published first in hardcopy 1988, accessed online 7 October 2016.

This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, (MUP), 1988

© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2016

http:/ladb.anu.edu.au/biography/purdy-john-smith-8132 212