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Emeritus Consultants Biographies
Ernest Beech was born in Adelaide in 1908. He was educated at Pulteney Grammar School where as Dux he gained a church school's scholarship to St Peter's College. A government bursary took him on to the University of Adelaide where he graduated MB BS in 1932. Following graduation, Ernie Beech came to the Royal Perth Hospital as a resident medical officer in 1933 and medical registrar in 1934. He then spent two years in England, working both at Queen Square and at the Royal Chest Hospital in London, gaining his MRCP just before his return to Australia in 1936. Ernie Beech spent the next nine years in general practice at Guildford where he was in partnership with surgeon Eric Kyle. The two formed a team with Beech as the physician-anaesthetist. He also worked with the lone neurosurgeon in Perth, James Ainslie, acting in this regard as a neurologist. In 1948 he was appointed president of the Australian Association of Anaesthetists and in 1953 a foundation fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the RACS. Only in 1950 did he relinquish his position of Anaesthetist to the Royal Perth Hospital. When he returned to the Royal Perth Hospital in 1938 he was appointed clinical assistant to the late Bruce Hunt working both in general medicine and diabetes. In 1950 he was appointed honorary visiting physician to the hospital in addition to his commitment as senior physician to the Fremantle Hospital from 1946-1958 and visiting neurologist to the Childrens Hospital 1951-1958. In the ten years before his retirement from general medicine in 1966, he was deeply involved in the medical affairs of the hospital and the profession. He was Chairman of a number of influential committees at the Royal Perth Hospital and President of the local branch of the AMA. In 1968 when he finally retired as senior neurologist he became coordinator of the department of radiology and following this served as assistant neurologist. Family life was immensely important to Ernest Beech. To a man of simple tastes, the company of his wife and children, his passion for fishing and his commitment to medicine, ensured a rich endowment and reward. On his retirement, in recognition of his long and outstanding contribution to the hospital, he was appointed Emeritus Consultant Physician. Ernest Beech died in August 1976. |
