Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

GUNNING Norman Stannus ED MCh FRCS(Ed) Ortho FRACS

1895-1964

Norman Stannus Gunning was born, on 13th December 1895, in Renmark, South Australia. He was the son of Arthur Stannus Gunning and Helen Amelia, nee Jarrett. He was educated at Adelaide High School. Gunning initially worked as a wheel-right, before enlisting in 1/AIF in WW1, on 9th February 1916. He had served in the 24th Light Horse in Maitland where his family had moved. He trained as a signaller, in the United Kingdom, and he was promoted Corporal before joining the 43rd Battalion in France. He returned to Australia on 4th July 1919. Gunning had been encouraged to take up medicine as a career by Doctor Lionel Oxborrow Betts, a general practitioner in Maitland, and later orthopaedic surgeon, who also served during WW1. Gunning studied medicine at the University of Adelaide graduating MB BS in 1926. Gunning played football and cricket at university and maintained a lifelong interest in the football club. Gunning married Muriel Marjory Prince, she was the daughter George Athelstan Prince and Edith, nee Thompson, on 28th August 1930, in St Peter’s Cathedral. Following six years in general practice and various attachments in hospitals, including Kapunda, South Australia and Queensland, he pursued his interest in surgery and, particularly, in orthopaedic surgery.  Gunning went to England for post-graduate study, in 1933. He gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh and his MCh Ortho, in Liverpool, in 1934.

Between the World Wars, he continued to serve in the militia. He was commissioned, as a Captain, in the AAMC in 1927.  He was promoted major, in 1939, at the beginning of WW2.  He was made temporary a lieutenant colonel on 8th September 1941 and appointed CO of 6 Cav FdAmb. He was called up for full-time duty and appointed CO of 3rd FdAmb, on 19th November 1941.  3rd FdAmb was the first militia medical unit sent to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, to support 30th Bde. 3 FdAmb remained a militia unit and had undergone hasty equipping and preparation in Adelaide and left on Christmas day for New Guinea. The unit had to prepare roads, gather stores and dig slit trenches because nothing was ready in Murray Barracks for their reception. He arrived with his unit, on 3rd January 1942. He was appointed ADMS New Guinea Force on 25th January. Gunning was confirmed as lieutenant colonel on 1st of September, but returned from New Guinea, in September 1942, because of ill health. He was appointed Orthopaedic Specialist of 105 AGH at Daw Park, SA, from 1942 to 1944. On 13th February 1944 he was placed on Reserve of Officers list

Gunning continued his orthopaedic career after the war.  He was Assistant Honorary Orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Adelaide Hospital from 1947 to 1955. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1948. Gunning was President of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Physiotherapy Association. Dr W. J. Betts, Chairman of the Australian Orthopaedic Association, said that Gunning was one of the pioneers of orthopaedic surgery, in South Australia, and the Commonwealth. He wrote many papers on orthopaedic surgery. He was said to have an unusual personality which made him popular with his peers and friends. Gunning and his wife Muriel had three daughters. The eldest was a medical graduate who topped her final year and practised as an anaesthetist. Norman Stannus Gunning died, on the 20th July 1964, survived by his wife and three daughters.

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