Sir George Adlington Syme Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire was an Australian surgeon.
Background
Syme was born at Nottingham, England, and was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne. His father, George Alexander Syme (1821–1894), a brother of David Syme and Ebenezer Syme, was a graduate of the University of Aberdeen and became a Baptist clergyman in England.
Education
Wesley College; King"s College London.
Career
He became editor of the Leader from which he retired in 1885 and died on 31 December 1894. He continued his studies at King"s College London, worked under Lister and gained his Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Engineering in 1885. He returned to Melbourne and became examiner in anatomy, and physiology at the university.
In 1888 he qualified for the degree of Church
M. and in 1890 was acting Professor of Anatomy. In 1893 he became Honorary Surgeon to in-patients at Street Vincent"s hospital, and held the same position at Melbourne Hospital from 1903 to 1919.
When war broke out he left Australia in December 1914 as lieutenant-colonel, and was chief of the surgical staff in Number. 1 general hospital at Cairo.
He was present at the landing at Gallipoli.
Invalided to England, he was consulting surgeon to the Australian Imperial Forces in London. He returned to Australia in 1916 and was attached to the Caulfield Military Hospital as surgeon. Syme was President of the Australian Medical Congress in 1923, and three times President of the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association.
During the last two years of his life he was much interested in the formation of the Australasian College of Surgeons, of which he was the first president
In the same year he was created Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He died on 19 April 1929. His portrait by Longstaff is in the Medical Society hall at Melbourne.
Membership
On his retirement in 1924 he was presented with his portrait painted by Sir John Longstaff and subscribed for by members of his profession.