- William Carr
Surgeon Rear-Admiral William James Carr, CBE, (
30 January 1883 -16 May 1966 ),Australia n naval officer, was theRoyal Australian Navy 's Director of Naval Medical Services from 1932 to 1946.Carr was born in
Thornton-in-Craven , a village in theWest Riding of Yorkshire ,England , where his father James was a solicitor. He was educated atMarlborough College inWiltshire and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained an arts degree in 1904, specialising in classics: he read both Latin and Greek. He then studied medicine at theRoyal London Hospital , becoming an LRCP and MRCS in 1908. He remained at London Hospital as a resident medical officer until 1910, and then worked as a ship's doctor on a merchant vessel.In 1911 the newly formed Royal Australian Navy (RAN) advertised in Britain for professional men to join the service, and Carr enlisted on 9 December. He was posted to the new Australian
light cruiser HMAS "Melbourne" with the rank of surgeon-lieutenant, where he served until 1917. DuringWorld War I he saw service inNew Guinea (where he was present at the German surrender ofRabaul ), the Pacific, North Atlantic and West Indies. In October 1917 he transferred to thebattlecruiser HMAS "Australia", and in March 1918 to the cruiser HMAS "Sydney", where he served until 1920. In August 1919 he married Leonora Eddington, to whom he had been engaged since 1914. They had a son and two daughters.In 1920 Carr was posted to the RAN College at
Jervis Bay , south ofSydney , and was promoted to surgeon-commander. In 1925 he went on an exchange posting to the Royal Naval Hospital nearPortsmouth , England, and on his return to Australia in 1927 he was posted to HMAS "Cerberus", the RAN naval base at Flinders, south ofMelbourne . He bought a home at Frankston, half-way between Melbourne and Flinders, where he lived for the rest of his life.In 1932 Carr was appointed Director of Naval Medical Services (DNMS) with the rank of surgeon-captain. The RAN at this time had been drastically cut back following the
London Naval Treaty and the spending cuts during theGreat Depression . Nevertheless Carr was able to build up a system of naval medical training and facilities that proved to be effective when the RAN began to expand again in the late 1930s. DuringWorld War II Carr oversaw an extensive network of RAN medical facilities across the South-West Pacific theatre, and from 1943 was also in charge of theRoyal Navy 's medical services in the Pacific. His status was recognised by his appointment as an honorary aide de camp to theGovernor of Victoria , and as an honorary surgeon to King George VI in 1944.Carr retired in March 1946 with a CBE and the rank of surgeon rear-admiral, the first Australian naval surgeon to attain flag rank. In retirement he was active in local affairs and was a delegate to Victorian state conferences of the Liberal Party. He died at Frankson in May 1966.
References
*"
Australian Dictionary of Biography ", 1891-1939, 570
*"Medical Journal of Australia ", 28 January 1967
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.