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Emeritus Consultants Biographies
Richard Davis was born in 1924 in London, the son of Harold Davis, caterer, and Edith nee Wall. He originally trained as a cabinet maker but at the age of 18 he was called for military service and it was in the army that he received his initial training as a laboratory technologist. After four years he became chief technologist at the Central Reference Laboratory for South East Asia which was located in India, with the rank of Warrant Officer. He was one of only two Warrant Officers with laboratory appointments in the British Army at that time. After the war, he spent two years with Professor Sir John Dacie at the Royal Postgraduate School and took his AIMLS and later his FIMLS qualifications. He worked in Iran and Africa for a number of years and then joined the Colombo Plan and was sent to Bangladesh with Professor Shortt to reorganise the pathology services of that country. Richard came to the Royal Perth Hospital by invitation in 1955 as the first chief technologist in the newly formed Department of Haematology. He obtained his MSc from the University of WA in 1970 and his PhD in 1974. In 1970 he was appointed Assistant Haematologist and later the word assistant was removed from all Clinical Staff posts. He has been a visiting lecturer at both UWA & WAIT (Curtin University). In 1957 he was a member of a Government sponsored team, which included Professor Ida Mann, sent to study the health of the Aborigines. The team drove from Perth to Giles and this was recorded in a book written by Professor Mann "The Cockney & The Crocodile". In 1968 he spent nine months in the Department of Haematology at St Bartholomew's Hospital to advise on restructuring. Richard's major interests have been laboratory management, automation and research. He designed the first semi-automated system for the rapid processing of blood samples in 1967 and later developed automated systems for measuring a number of B group vitamins. He was a member of the team responsible for the development of a highly successful computer based data handling system for haematology. He was the first to set up routine hospital based screening for hepatitis B in Australia and the first to introduce a method for measuring glycated haemoglobin in this country. During his time at the Royal Perth Hospital Richard Davis has received many hundreds of thousands of dollars in research grants. He has written nearly 200 scientific papers including six book chapters. He has regularly attended major International Meetings in Haematology and Biochemistry and has spoken at most of them, often by invitation. He is a life Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Health, an Associate Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia and a Fellow of the International Society of Haematology. In recognition of his contribution to Haematology he was made a life member of the Haematology Society of Australia in 1989. In 1960 Richard married Norma Mackinnon, a laboratory scientist, they have one son who is also a medical scientist. Other interests include cabinet making, electronics, philately and travel. Richard retired in 1988. In 1998 Richard was invited to head a voluntary team at the Royal Perth Hospital to develop a web site to provide a basis for the diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis of malaria. Within a relatively short time the site was set up and while it was originally meant to serve Western Australia it was rapidly taken up world wide. The site is now available in English, French and Spanish and has attracted more than 500,000 visitors from 150 countries. It is also available as a CD ROM. His work in medicine and education was recognised nationally by being made a member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2001 and by the award of the Australian Centenary medal in 2003. |
