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Roy Cameron (pathologist)

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Sir Roy Cameron
Born
Gordon Roy Cameron

30 June 1899
Echuca, Victoria, Australia
Died20 October 1969(1969-10-20) (aged 70)
Finchley, London, England
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
AwardsRoyal Medal (1960)
Fellow of the Royal Society[1]
Scientific career
FieldsPathology
InstitutionsUniversity of Melbourne
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
University College Hospital
Queen Mary's Hospital

Sir Gordon Roy Cameron FRCP FRCPath FRS[1] (30 June 1899 – 7 October 1966) was an Australian pathologist.

Childhood and education

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Cameron was born in 1899 in Echuca, Victoria to George Cameron and his wife Emily Pascoe. He was educated at state schools in local villages including Mitiamo, Lancefield, Dunkeld and finally (from 1911 to 1917) at Kyneton, although from 1913 to 1917 he was occupied with compulsory military service. He gained a scholarship to Queen's College at the University of Melbourne, where he studied medicine from February 1916 to 1922, when he graduated with a second-class MB BS.[2] A lecture by Harry Brookes Allen convinced Cameron to focus on pathology, and he was appointed Stewart Lecturer of Pathology at the University of Melbourne in 1924.

Career

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In 1925 Charles Kellaway invited Cameron to work at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research as the deputy director, where he remained until 1927, when he left to take up a position at University College Hospital (UCH) under Arthur Boycott, with the idea that he would return to take over from Harry Allen. When his time in London was up however he discovered he did not want to return, and he instead took up board with Fred Crewe (Boycott's chief technician) and his wife Alice, with whom he lived for the rest of his life and who remained devoted to him. He never married.[3] In 1929 he became Graham Scholar in Pathology at the Hospital, followed by a promotion to Beit Fellow for Medical Research in 1930. He spent a year as a pathologist at Queen Mary's Hospital but, unhappy with the job, returned to UCH in 1934, this time as a Reader in Pathology.[4] Boycott retired as Reader in Morbid Anatomy in 1937 and Cameron succeeded him, although he then spent much of World War II working with Joseph Barcroft at Porton Down studying the effects of poison gas. After the war Roy returned to UCH, this time as head of the Graham department.

He retired in 1964 and died of heart disease on 7 October 1966.[2]

He was knighted in 1957. He had made his only return visit to Australia in 1962 to accept an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Melbourne.

References

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  1. ^ a b Oakley, C. L. (1969). "Gordon Roy Cameron 1899-1969". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 14: 83–116. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1968.0005. S2CID 73242569.
  2. ^ a b "Cameron, Sir (Gordon) Roy". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32258. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ Stokes, J (1967). "Gordon Roy Cameron". Journal of Clinical Pathology. 20 (1): 5–6. doi:10.1136/jcp.20.1.5. PMC 473412. PMID 5334539. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
  4. ^ "Cameron, Sir Gordon Roy (1899–1966)". Cameron, Sir Gordon Roy (1899 - 1966) Biographical Entry - Australian Dictionary of Biography Online. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
Educational offices
Preceded by
not established
President of the Royal College of Pathologists
1962 – 1966
Succeeded by