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LINDON Sir Leonard Charles Edward MS MB FRCS FRACS

1896-1978

Leonard Charles Edward Lindon was born, on 8th February 1896, in North Adelaide. He was the youngest the four children of James Hemery Lindon and his wife, Mary Ellen Cockburn, nee Mayne. His father had founded the Queen's School in North Adelaide.  Lindon was educated at Geelong Church of England Grammar School, St Peter’s College and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide.  He played cricket and tennis and rowed for his school and university.  Lindon enlisted in the AIF, while he was a medical student, on the 13th February 1915.  He had previously been in 78 Infantry P Company reserve unit for six months.  He joined 1ASH and served on Lemnos and Gallipoli in 1915.  He returned to Australia on the Argyllshire working as a medical orderly/nurse. He transferred to 4MD and was discharged to complete his medical studies on 3rd March 1916.     After WW1, Lindon resumed his medical course on return to Adelaide and graduated MB BS in 1919.  He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship, in 1918, which he took up, in 1920, at Balliol College, where his colleague, Hugh William Bell Cairns, another Rhodes Scholar was also studying. Cairns was to have a significant influence on him and his choice of career.  At Oxford, he, like Cairns, worked with the great neurophysiologist, Charles Sherrington. Lindon married Jean Monteith Marten, the only daughter of Dr Robert Humphrey Marten and Annie Freebairn, nee Monteith of North Adelaide, on 12th December 1921, in Brompton, England.  He took the FRCS, in 1922, and returned to Adelaide as a general surgeon in association with his father-in-law and brother-in-law, Henry Newland.  Lindon studied for his MS in 1923. He was appointed an honorary assistant surgeon at the Adelaide Hospital, in 1925, and subsequently at the Adelaide Children's Hospital.    Lindon travelled overseas, in 1929, where he spent time at the London Hospital with his colleague Cairns, who was establishing a neurosurgical service. He visited neurosurgical centres elsewhere in Britain and Paris before spending time in Boston studying with famed neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing.  Lindon returned to Adelaide to establish a neurosurgical unit and drew up farsighted plans for this.  He was appointed an honorary surgeon at the Adelaide Hospital in 1931, and, although this was a general surgical appointment he concentrated on neurosurgery.

Lindon re-enlisted in the 2nd AIF, on 16th October 1939, at the rank of lieutenant colonel. He named his wife Jean as his next of kin and they lived in Fitzroy, SA. He was marched into camp at Puckapunyal, Victoria, in April 1940, and embarked for overseas on 15th April 1940. Lindon spent 2 months with 4th NZ General Hospital before being attached as CO of the neurosurgical centre at the 2/2nd AGH, in Kantar near the Suez Canal, Egypt on 29th November 1940 until 29th November 1941. He was Mentioned in Despatches for ‘gallantry and distinguished services from July to October 1941'. He returned to 4MD Adelaide, and his appointment was terminated, and placed on the Reserve of Officers in July 1943.

After WW2, he held various appointments at the University of Adelaide, the SA branch of the BMA and the RACS, vice-president from 1956 to 1958 and president from 1959 to 1961. He was knighted in 1964.  Predeceased by his wife, in 1974, Sir Leonard Charles Edward Lindon died, on 28th August 1978, in North Adelaide. His daughter and two sons both of whom were also medical practitioners survived him. 

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