Person

Cook, Cecil Evelyn Aufrere (Mick) (1897 - 1985)

Born
23 September 1897
Bexhill, Surrey, United Kingdom
Died
4 July 1985
Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Medical administrator and Medical practitioner

Summary

Cecil Cook was a medical practitioner who in 1927 became chief Medical Officer and Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory. Based in Darwin he was able to concentrate on establishing a public health system. He established a training school for nurses and a tuberculosis clinic at Darwin Hospital (1929), general hospitals at Katherine (1931), Tennant Creek (1936) and Alice Springs (1939), and a hospital for lepers outside Darwin (1931). With colleague Clyde Fenton he began the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service. Cook championed the welfare of full-blood Aborigines but looked for ways to 'uplift' the morality and standards of living of 'half-castes'. As a senior public health officer for the Western Australian and Commonwealth Governments, Cook interested himself in perinatal and infant health, traffic injuries, skin cancer, food standards, native health and the carcinogenic properties of tobacco. As Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council's public health committee he played a leading role in Australia's campaign against poliomyelitis.

Details

Chronology

1899
Life event - Migrated to Australia with his family
1920
Education - MB ChM, University of Sydney
1923
Education - DTM&H, London School of Tropical Medicine
1927 - 1939
Career position - Chief Medical Officer and Chief Protector of Aborigines, North Australia
1929
Education - MD, University of Sydney
1931
Education - DPH, University of Sydney
1935
Award - Cilento Medal, Australian Institute of Anatomy
1935
Award - Commander of the Order of he British Empire (CBE)
1939 - 1941
Career position - Lecturer, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney
1941 - 1946
Career position - Served with the Australian Imperial Forces
1946 - 1949
Career position - Commissioner of Public Health, Western Australia
1949 - 1958
Career position - Senior Medical Officer, Commonwealth Department of Health
1958 - 1962
Career position - Director, Division of Public Health, Commonwealth Department of Health
1964 - 1972
Career position - Member, Human Biology Advisory Committee, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Books

  • Cook, Cecil, The epidemiology of leprosy in Australia : being the report of an investigation in Australia during the years 1923-1925 under the terms of the Wandsworth Research Scholarship of the London School of Tropical Medicine (Canberra: Department of Health, 1927), 303 pp. Details
  • Leithhead, Barry, A vision for Australia's health: Dr Cecil Cook at work (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2019), 358 pp. Details

Book Sections

Resources

See also

  • Kettle, Ellen, Health Services in the Northern Territory: a History, 1824-1970 (Darwin: North Australian Research Unit, Australian National University, 1991), 700 pp. Details

Helen Cohn

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