Lieutenant Colonel Ruthven Blackburn

Place Oceania: Australia, Queensland, North Queensland, Cairns
Accession Number ART24302
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 46.6 x 32.8 cm
Object type Work on paper
Physical description pencil with black conte crayon on paper
Maker Heysen, Nora
Place made Australia: Queensland, North Queensland, Cairns
Date made September 1945
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Ruthven Bickerton Blackburn, Commanding and Senior Physician of the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit (LHQ, 1MRU), Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC). During the 1940s Blackburn worked with a team of medical researchers in Cairns to find a way of arresting the crippling malaria casualties among Australian troops in New Guinea. Volunteers were deliberately infected with the parasite and then treated under various drug trials. The results of the trials at 1MRU highlighted the importance of taking Atabrine (mepacrine) which significantly reduced the symptoms of malaria seen in operation in New Guinea. In 1949 Blackburn established the state's first clinical research unit at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he later became actively involved in the training of doctors in the 1960s and 70s. In 2006 Emeritus Professor Blackburn was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in recognition of his service to the development of academic medicine and medical education in Australia.