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Teacher at Prince Alfred College, until attending University of Edinburgh (MB, 1887), for voyage only.

ROGERS Richard Sanders DSc MD (Edin) MA FRACP FRS (SA)

1861-1942

Richard Sanders Rogers was born on the 2nd December 1861. He was the son of Joseph Rogers and Ann Childers Williams. Joseph was a contractor/mason from Lyndoch South Australia. Rogers was educated at the Pulteney Street School in 1879. He became the first public school boy to matriculate, with Greek as a supplementary subject, which earned him a scholarship to the University of Adelaide to study a Bachelor of Arts graduating with 1st class honours in 1882.  He then undertook teaching at Prince Alfred College before travelling to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine graduating MB ChM in 1887. On August 3rd 1887 he married Jane Scott Paterson. In 1893 he also gained his MD at Edinburgh University.  He returned to Australia with his wife to commence general practice in Adelaide. Their home, with surgery attached, was located in Flinders Street, East Adelaide, within easy reach of the Adelaide Hospital. He undertook further study at the University of Adelaide gaining a MD and MA in 1897.  He was appointed as an Honorary Physician to the Adelaide Hospital in 1897 and served as a member of the hospital Board from 1896-1922. In 1893, Rogers' became interested in hypnosis and used it as an adjunct to his methods of treatment. His private practice flourished and he was a notable exponent of mesmeric art from 1894. Furthermore, in 1895, The Advertiser reported that Dr Rogers "successfully removed a cyst from the breast of a young woman while acting as both a surgeon and hypnotist while she was awake and talking to assistants and witnesses standing nearby".

Rogers had brief military service in South Africa in 1901. In 1914 he was appointed as the Medical Superintendent, 7th Australian Base Hospital at Keswick Barracks, South Australia with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He served in this position until the end of the war.

After the war Rogers became Superintendent and visiting Psychiatrist to Enfield Receiving House, Northfield Mental Hospital. He was also Consulting Psychiatrist to all Mental Institutions from 1929 until 1942. He recommenced study at the University of Adelaide and gained a DSc in 1936. He was a member and President of the state Medical Board and a lecturer in Forensic Science to medical students. He occupied positions on numerous public institutions including the Museum, the Public Library, and the Art Gallery of South Australia. Rogers was a Foundation Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Rogers was also interested in native orchids. He wrote papers on orchids and published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. He was credited with the discovery of 85 new species of Australian native orchids. His wife accompanied him in searching for orchids in Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of SA, he served as its President from 1920-1922. In 1924 Rogers was elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London for the many contributions he made on orchids and their taxonomy. Richard Sanders Rogers died on 28th March 1942.  He was survived by his wife, his son and his daughter whom he disowned because of her secret marriage.  He bequeathed his research and material on orchids to the University of Adelaide and the rest of his collection is at the Adelaide Herbarium.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australia, who Served in World War 1. 

Verco, Summers, Swain, Jelly. Open Books Howden, Adelaide 2014. 

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD