Emeritus Consultants Biographies

Colin Evan BAYLISS University of Adelaide MB BS (Adelaide) 1951 MRACP 1970, FRACP 1974 Consultant Rheumatologist

Colin Bayliss was born in Perth Western Australia on the 8 August 1921, the son of Evan Beverley Bayliss, an import agent and Gladys nee Winterbottom.  His father died when he was ten and through force of circumstances he left school when he was 15.  Colin's first job was at the Royal Perth Hospital where he was employed in a very junior capacity.

In the Second World War he joined the RAAF and became a bomber pilot with the rank of Warrant Officer.  While piloting a Lancaster bomber over Europe he was shot down and was sheltered by a French family but eventually he was captured by the Germans and spent two and a quarter years in a prisoner of war camp.  He later wrote an autobiography about this in a book "No Flying Without Wings" published in 1994.

After the war Colin enrolled in the Medical School at Adelaide University and completed his MB BS in 1951.  He came back to Western Australia and was a resident medical officer at Fremantle Hospital.  For the next 13 years, 1953-66, he was a general practitioner in Bunbury.  Colin was then appointed Medical Registrar at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, Melbourne, having taken time off from General Practice (1957-58).  In 1963 he was Medical Registrar at the Royal Perth Hospital, then in 1967 he went to the Northern General Hospital, Edinburgh for training in Rheumatology.

In 1970 Colin was made MRACP and in 1974 FRACP. He was appointed Consultant Rheumatologist at the Royal Perth Hospital and later Head of the Department of Rheumatic Diseases 1979-86.

Colin has written a number of scientific papers mostly on aspects of Rheumatology.  He was also a founding member of the Arthritis Association of W.A.

In 1948 he married Janet Twycross and they have three sons two of whom are doctors.

Outside of medicine he was interested in Hockey, Squash, Cricket and Sailing.  Later he took up bowls and was a member of the Dalkeith Bowling Club.  He was keen on woodwork and home renovations, classical music and not surprisingly remembering his war-time experience in France, the French language.

Colin retired 1986 and was appointed an Emeritus Consultant.  However, he carried on as a Locum Rheumatologist until 1991.  He died in January 2004.