Biographical entry Gibson, John Lockhart (1860 - 1944)

Summary

John Lockhart Gibson completed his medical degree in Edinburgh then studied in Vienna, Berlin and London. He returned to Australia in 1886c and started up in general practice. Then in 1895 he was appointed ophthalmologist at Brisbane's Hospital for Sick Children. In 1892 Gibson and his colleagues attributed childhood anemia to hookworm and in 1904 he discovered that house paint was causing lead-poisoning in children. He led the campaign which saw lead paint banned from houses under the 1922 Health Act. Gibson joined the Australian Imperial Force in 1915 and was sent to Limnos to take charge of the ophthalmology section of the 3rd Australian General Hospital. Because his work was so successful, casualties from other regions, including Gallipoli, were sent there. John Gibson was involved in many professional organizations including the Queensland Medical Society, the British Medical Association (both the Queensland and federal branches), the College of Surgeons of Australasia and the Ophthalmological Society of Australia.

Details

Events

1881

Education - Bachelor of Medicine (MB) completed at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland

1885

Education - Doctor of Medicine (MD) received from the University of Edinburgh

1886 -

Career position - General practice in Brisbane

1886 - 1894

Career position - Visiting Physician at the Hospital for Sick Children, Brisbane

1892

Career position - Vice-President of the 3rd Intercolonial Medical Congress in Sydney

1892

Career position - President of the Queensland Medical Society

1895 -

Career position - Opthamologist at the Hospital for Sick Children, Brisbane

1908

Career position - President of the British Medical Association, Queensland branch

1915 - 1916

Career position - Major and Opthalmologist-in-charge with the 3rd Australian General Hospital in Lemnos, Greece

1920 - 1935

Career position - Senator at the University of Queensland

1927 -

Career position - Fellow of the College of Surgeons of Australasia

1940 - 1944

Career position - President of the Opthalmological Society of Australia

Published resources

Book Sections

• Wood, Ronald, 'Gibson, John Lockhart (1860-1944)', in Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 8, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1981, pp. 652-653. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080666b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Wood, R., 'John Lockhart Gibson During the Gallipoli Campaign, 1915', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery, vol. 62, no. 6, 1992, pp. 492-494. Details

Online Resources

• National Library of Australia, 'Gibson, John Lockhart', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1468613. Details