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Emeritus Consultants Biographies
Donald (Don) Fleming was born in the country town of Carnarvon, Western Australia in 1917, the son of a pastoralist. He received his early education as a boarder at Guildford Grammar School and then studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, winning the prize for clinical medicine. From 1942 to 1945 he served with the RAMC, some of this time with the 105 Light Field Ambulance in Dutch New Guinea. After the end of the war he trained in surgery and obtained the Fellowship of the English College of Surgeons in 1948. About three years in England at this time left a strong impression on the young Donald. He worked first at Oswestry at the Robert Jones Orthopaedic Hospital under many eminent orthopaedic surgeons including Sir Reginald Watson Jones, Sir Henry Osmond Clarke, Lloyd Griffiths and Reginald Rolt and Don could well have become an orthopaedic surgeon. After that as RSO at the Royal Masonic Hospital and All Saints Hospital he met a cross section of London's most distinguished surgeons including Sir Cecil Wakely, Mr Arthur (later Lord) Porritt and Terence Millin. The latter, the inventor of the prostatectomy operation bearing his name, was a hard working volatile Irishman who left a lasting impression on anyone who worked with him. >/p> Donald returned to Perth in 1950 and was then appointed to the surgical staff at the Royal Perth Hospital which he served until his retirement in 1982 when he was a senior surgeon. A dextrous operator, he had a special interest in abdominal and urological surgery. He served the hospital as a board member from 1962 to 1968 and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons as a Councillor from 1969 to 1981. He was sometime Chairman of the Board of General Surgery. He married Elizabeth nee Cook in 1943 and they have two daughters, one of whom is a trained nurse, and a son who is a chemical engineer. In his private life he has greatly enjoyed an association with the West Perth Football Club of which he is now an honorary life member. He grows orchids as a pastime. |
