Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

HICKS Cedric Stanton Sir CStJ MD PhD FIC

1892-1976

Cedric Stanton Hicks was born on 2nd June 1892 in Mosgiel, New Zealand. His father, George Henry Hicks, was a factory worker and his mother was Sarah, nee Evans. He was educated in New Zealand, at Ravensbourne Public School and Otago Boys’ High School. At Otago University he graduated BSc in 1914, and MSc Hons in 1915. He played tennis, water polo, Rugby Union football, swam competitively, and represented his province as a rower, He earned an income demonstrating chemistry to medical students, delivering evening classes and teaching photography at the Dunedin School of Art. He served as a non-commissioned officer in the NZ Expeditionary Force from 1916-1918. He assisted in the synthesis and production of a biocide to prevent meningitis in the troops. Appointed as a government analyst, in 1918, he also worked as police toxicologist for the provinces of Otago and Southland. He was elected as a fellow of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland, and studied medicine there, graduating MB ChB in 1923. A Beit medical research fellowship resulted in travel to Trinity College, Cambridge, England, where he obtained a PhD. He married Florence Haggitt, on 8th June 1925, and they were to have two sons; they divorced in 1948. They travelled to Adelaide in 1926, where Hicks took up the Sheridan Research Fellowship and a lectureship in mammalian physiology at the University of Adelaide; in 1927 he was appointed to the chair of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide. He was to hold this appointment until 1957.  Hicks obtained the MD at the University of Adelaide, in 1936. He had a particular interest in the diets of Australian families and made a number of excursions to central Australia, to study aspects of the physiology of Australian aborigines. He was knighted in 1936 for services to medical science.

Hicks was appointed temporary captain in the CMF and performed part-time duty as catering supervisor 4MD before a posting to Melbourne, in June 1940, as chief inspector of catering. Principle amongst his interest in military catering was the scientific approach to feeding the troops. He was promoted lieutenant colonel in 1943 and seconded to 2/AIF, with rank of colonel in 1944. The Australian Army Catering Corps whose motto is ‘We Sustain’, was formed primarily due to his persistence and he was posted as the first CO of the Corps which numbered some 17,000 men by the end of the war. His success was in ensuring military rations had a nutrient value rather than a monetary value. Military cooks enjoyed improved education, pay and promotion opportunities at his instigation. The military established cooking and catering schools, new methods of preparing food were devised, as well as implementing jungle patrol, emergency and food drop rations. He popularised the use of the mobile Wiles steam cooker.  Relinquishing his appointment in 1946, he was recalled to duty in 1947, and when he transferred to the retired list, at the rank of brigadier. He described his wartime experience in his 1972 book; Who called the cook a bastard.

He returned to the University of Adelaide and his home, since 1926, ‘Woodley’ at Glen Osmond. He married Valerie Irene Hubbard, a 28-year-old divorced nurse, on 9th October 1948, in her father’s home in Peppermint Grove, Perth WA. His wide-ranging interests continued; he examined the merits of fluoridation, studied soil conservation, investigated biological approaches to food production, was president of the SA Tuberculosis Association from 1958 to 1965 and took an interest in land reform in Italy. Sir Cedric Stanton Hicks died on 7th February 1976 at Glen Osmond, South Australia. He was survived by his second wife and sons by his first marriage.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears III: Medical Practitioners South Australia, who Served in World War 2. 

Swain, Jelly, Verco, Summers. Open Books Howden, Adelaide 2019. 

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD