John Gunther (public servant)
John Gunther | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Official Member of the House of Assembly | |
| In office 1964–1966 | |
| Official Member of the Legislative Council | |
| In office 1951–1964 | |
| Assistant Administrator | |
| In office 1957–1966 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 2 October 1910 Sydney, Australia |
| Died | 27 April 1984 (aged 73) Melbourne, Australia |
Sir John Thomson Gunther
Biography
Gunther was born in Sydney in 1910, the son of Cyril Maynard Gunther, a chemist with the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, and Jean Graeme (née Thomson).[1] The family moved to the Tweed River area when Gunther was a small child, but returned to Sydney in 1917.[1] He attended Cranbrook School and was then a boarder at the King's School in Parramatta.[1] He subsequently studied medicine at the University of Sydney, and represented the university at boxing and rugby.[1]
Following a year of residency at Sydney Hospital, in 1935 he joined the Pacific Plantations branch of Lever Brothers, going to work as a medical officer in Gavutu and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.[2] In 1938 he married Grace Rickard-Bell and left his job with Pacific Plantations to become chair of a medical investigation into lead poisoning at Mount Isa.[1] The couple went on to have two children.[1] He then joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1941, serving as a medical officer. He spent time in the Territory of Papua focusing on malaria prevention and was awarded diplomas in public health and tropical medicine from the University of Sydney in 1944.[1] His wife was killed in a car accident in 1942. The following year he married Elvie Phyllis Hodge, with whom he had another two children.[1] He became commanding officer of the 1st Australian Tropical Research Field Unit in 1944, holding the post until 1946.[1]
Following the war Gunther was appointed Director of Public Health in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea in 1946.
In 1966 Gunther resigned as Assistant Administrator to become Vice-Chancellor of the new University of Papua New Guinea. He retired from the role due to ill health in 1972 and returned to Australia, initially living in Buderim in Queensland, before moving south to Melbourne. He was knighted in the 1975 Birthday Honours. He died in Melbourne in 1984, survived by his wife and four children.[2]
