Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

ELLIOTT Murray William AO MB BS FRACOG

1921 –

Murray William Elliott was born at the Memorial Hospital, Adelaide, on 8th July 1921.  He was the son of Lionel Vivian Elliott and Lilian Abbott, nee Cornell. He has one sister Nancy Florence Hall. Elliott was educated at St Peter’s College, during his school years he was in the school cadets. He began medicine at the University of Adelaide in 1939 and at this time was residing at Beulah Park. He won the Intern Prize in 1942 and the William Gardner Scholarship in 1943. His degree was condensed to five years due to the war, and graduated MB BS in December 1943. He undertook his residency at the RAH and the post graduate training in obstetrics at the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital and was awarded the TG Wilson Scholarship for Obstetrics for 1949.

Elliott enlisted in the Army as a private soldier on 18th September 1941 at Kensington, while still a medical student.  Whilst not specified, it is presumed he was held in a Reserve position until he completed his medical degree.  After the bombing of Darwin in 1942, he with other medical students assisted air raid wardens with their nightly inspections and instructed the general public in first aid procedures. After graduation he was promoted to captain and was posted as the medical officer to the 34th BN which remained in Australia to undertake defensive duties.  It was in August 1944 when the Japanese prisoners escaped from the Cowra Prisoner of War Camp that Elliott met his first Japanese soldier.  He medically examined this soldier after he had been 14 days on the run, finding out later that the soldier was a medical orderly.  Elliott was shipped to Rabaul on 15th September 1945. Here he held sick parades for several different nationalities who had been held as Japanese prisoners of war.  These ranged from; Chinese, Dutch Indian, Korean and Melanesians. Elliot recalls that as an officer he was permitted to sit in the War Crime Tribunals, where he heard of the many atrocities that were perpetrated by the Japanese to their prisoners. Whilst in Rabaul, Elliott applied to join the BCOF in Japan and was subsequently accepted and sent to Morotai via Hollandia and Biak, in 1946, which was the assembly point for the Australian Force.

The Australian medical support of the 34th Bn was the 20th FdAmb and 130 AGH and later the 116th Convalescent Depot. Elliott was joined at this time by other South Australian doctors; Bob Burston, David Craven, John Skipper, Nigel Abbott and David Morgan, who was with the RAAF. The time in Morotai was longer than expected, and whilst they were there, one of the important duties of the doctors was to lecture the troops on the dangers of sexually transmitted disease.  Other important activities according to Elliott was to learn Japanese, which was beyond him, and frequent the officers club, which was acrimoniously ‘wrested’ from a small Netherlands contingent.  They eventually left Morotai and arrived in Kure, on 13th February 1946, which is the most southern part of Honshu Island in Japan. Elliott describes the scene on arrival to the harbour as one of complete devastation. Hulls of warships littered the harbour, it did not seem as though one building was left whole and a pall of smoke was emanating from a , stock pile of coal that had been attacked with incendiary bombs in June 1945.  Outbreaks of fire were a contstant hazard at the barracks at Kure.  The New Zealand 27th Bn barracks were totally destroyed by fire at Yamaguchi, in October 1946.  Elliott was based at Point Camp, approximately a kilometre from Kure, sharing the area with Australian and Indian engineers. The weather was freezing cold and he had difficulty finding a convenient site for his unit. At this time there was an ever increasing number of soldiers presenting with sexually transmitted diseases, despite the massive effort of education and prevention of access to prostitution. Throughout his time in Japan Elliott became interested in the Japanese way of life, culture and art which he documented in his book entitled; Occupational Hazards: a Doctor in Japan and Elsewhere. His unit moved to Miyajima, where he commanded the 116th Convalescent Depot.  He returned to Australia, in 1948, and was issued the 1939 – 45 War Medal, the Australia Service Medal 45-76, the BCOF Japan Medal 1946 – 1952 and the Australian Defence Medal.

Elliott turned his interests to obstetrics and went to England for postgraduate study to gain his Fellowship of the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.  During the voyage to England he met his future wife Gillian Earnshaw. She was travelling with her older sister Joan, who had just graduated in medicine. They were going to visit several English relatives. Their mother was English as were all of their grandparents. Gillian and Joan embarked in Brisbane and Elliott boarded with his friend Gilbert Aitken. Joan was joining her husband Graham Anderson, who was undertaking post graduate study, in Manchester, which is where Elliot was also intending to study. He returned to Australia and married Joan on the 7th April 1951 and subsequently had four children, Jonathon, Rachael, Mark and Simon.  Deciding to move to Brisbane he worked with Dr Jarvis Nye in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Brisbane Clinic.  Once he was well established in Brisbane he and Gillian could afford to undertake some overseas travel especially in South East Asia.  It was during a visit to Papua New Guinea in 1959 that he volunteered to help to improve the health of Papua New Guinean women. He was appalled with some of the severe gynaecological and reproductive conditions of the women that he saw. While on RCOG Council, in 1966, he proposed that they should assist with obstetrics and gynaecology in PNG, which would also provide excellent experience for post graduate students interested in obstetrics and gynaecology. This led to a long period of working and volunteering in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Elliott continued his obstetrics and gynaecology practice in Brisbane.  He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia, in June 1993, for his service to medicine, particularly in the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology He maintained his great interest in Japanese and South East Asian art throughout his life, encouraged by his friend Brian Johnston from Adelaide. He acquired many paintings, but also found time for tennis and golf at the Royal Queensland Golf Club.