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Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online - Noel James Bonnin (livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk)

BONNIN Noel James MS FRCS FRACS

1909 -1989

Noel James Bonnin was born on 25th December 1909, in Adelaide. He was the son of Dr James Atkinson Bonnin and his wife Winifred, nee Turpin, of Mills Terrace, North Adelaide.  He was educated at the Queen’s School, St Peter’s College Adelaide and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, graduating MB BS, in 1932.  He was an excellent sportsman with university blues for rowing and lacrosse.  After his residency at the Adelaide Hospital, Bonnin went to England for surgical training in 1935, at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond St, and St James Hospital, Balham.  He undertook further study at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and University College Hospital, London.  He passed the FRCS exams in 1936 and, after returning to Australia, the FRACS exam in 1938.  He was appointed as a clinical assistant in surgery at the RAH.  Bonnin married Helen Prudence Elton Mayo, on 2nd April 1942, and they had two sons and two daughters. She was the daughter of Sir Herbert Mayo, a Supreme Court Judge, and Clarice Gwendoline Thomson, nee Melrose of Glenwood, Aldgate.

Bonnin enlisted as a captain in the AAMC, in August 1939, and transferred to the 2/AIF, in July 1940.  He was posted to 2/6th FdAmb, 7 Aust Div and went to the Middle East in December 1940.  During the Syrian campaign, in July 1941, he was attached 2/1st AGH Gaza.  He saved the life of Lieutenant Roden Cutler VC (later Sir Roden Cutler VC, Governor of NSW), who was severely wounded in the Battle of Damour with multiple gunshot wounds of the right leg and underwent an above knee amputation.  Bonnin insisted, against orders, that Cutler was transfused with fresh blood from local volunteer donors, as other patients had died when receiving transported stored blood.  Soon after, in August 1941, Bonnin was posted 2/1st CCS in Nazareth and from there was detached to the British 5 Field Transfusion Unit attached to the Scottish Mobile Hospital, in the Western Desert.  He was promoted to major, in November 1941, and transferred 2/5th AGH reformed now in Eritrea.  Bonnin returned to Australia in January 1942, and went with the unit to Armidale, NSW.  Posted to NT Force, in June 1942, he served in 121 AGH and 101 AGH in Katherine, NT and in 109 AGH in Alice Springs February 1943.  He then was posted 2/12th AGH in Warwick, QLD, which deployed, in May 1945, to the island of Morotai and then Balikpapan, Borneo.  Bonnin, at this time had earned a Master of Surgery degree, from the University of Adelaide, in 1944.  He was promoted lieutenant colonel in July 1945, and posted surgeon 2/4th AGH, Labuan, North Borneo. Bonnin was appointed OC Surgical Division, 2/9th AGH, Morotai, in September 1945. He returned to Australia, in January 1946, and was discharged and transferred to the Reserve of Officers.

Bonnin was appointed an honorary assistant surgeon to the RAH, after the war.  He won a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship to the USA, Canada and UK, in 1948.  After completing his travelling scholarship, he was appointed honorary surgeon in urology at the RAH. However, he transferred to the new TQEH serving from 1959 to 1969, and as by regulation, at the time, he was required to retire by the age of 60.  He was later appointed Emeritus Surgeon, TQEH.  Bonnin developed new techniques in prostatectomy first described as Bonnin’s Operation in the Journal of Urology 1955, which then became standard.  He designed his own cystoscopy operating table.  He had many outside interests and was President, SA Branch BMA, from 1964 to 1965.  A very practical man, he was an off-shore fisherman, cattle breeder and played tennis, golf and lawn bowls. Noel James Bonnin died on 7th July 1989, aged 79, survived by his wife Helen and his four children.

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