Surgeon Rear Admiral William James Carr, (30 January 1883 – 16 May 1966) was an Australian naval officer and physician, who served as the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

's Director of Naval Medical Services from 1932 to 1946.

Early life

Carr was born in

Thornton in Craven Thornton-in-Craven is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is approx from the border with Lancashire and north of Earby. Barnoldswick is nearby. The Pennine Way passes through the village, as ...

, a village in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, England, where his father James was a solicitor. He was educated at Marlborough College in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

and at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, where he gained an arts degree in 1904, specialising in classics: he read both

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

. He then studied medicine at the

Royal London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and s ...

, 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 A naval surgeon, or less commonly ship's doctor, is the person responsible for the health of the ship's company aboard a warship. The term appears often in reference to Royal Navy's medical personnel during the Age of Sail. Ancient uses Speciali ...

on a merchant vessel.

Naval medical career

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 A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

HMAS ''

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

'' with the rank of surgeon-lieutenant, where he served until 1917. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he saw service in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

(where he was present at the German surrender of Rabaul), the Pacific, North Atlantic and West Indies. In October 1917 he transferred to the battlecruiser 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 Jervis Bay () is a oceanic bay and village on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, said to possess the whitest sand in the world. A area of land around the southern headland of the bay is a territory of the Commonwealth of Australia ...

, south of Sydney, and was promoted to surgeon-commander. In 1925 he went on an exchange posting to the Royal Naval Hospital near

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, England, and on his return to Australia in 1927 he was posted to HMAS ''

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus (; grc-gre, Κέρβερος ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring of the ...

'', the RAN naval base at Flinders, south of

. He bought a home at Frankston, halfway 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 the Great 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. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Carr oversaw an extensive network of RAN medical facilities across the South-West Pacific theatre, and from 1943 was also in charge of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

's medical services in the Pacific. His status was recognised by his appointment as an honorary aide de camp to the

Governor of Victoria The governor of Victoria is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the Australian state of Victoria. The governor is one of seven viceregal representatives in the country, analogous to the governors of the other states, and th ...

, and as an honorary surgeon to King George VI in 1944.

Retirement

Carr retired in March 1946 with a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

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 The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. He died at

Frankston, Victoria Frankston is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Frankston local government area. Frankston recorded a population of 37,331 at the 2021 census. Due ...

in May 1966.

References

* Denis Fairfax
'Carr, William James (1883–1966)'
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 570–571. * ''

Medical Journal of Australia The ''Medical Journal of Australia'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 22 times a year. It is the official journal of the Australian Medical Association, published by Wiley on behalf of the Australasian Medical Publishing Company. The ...

'', 28 January 1967 {{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, William 1883 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Australian medical doctors Alumni of the London Hospital Medical College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Australian military personnel of World War I Australian military doctors Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Royal Australian Navy admirals Royal Australian Navy personnel of World War II Naval surgeons People from Thornton-in-Craven Military personnel from Yorkshire British emigrants to Australia People educated at Marlborough College People from Frankston, Victoria