Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Blackburn

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 disease 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.