Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop

Below: The statue of Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop which stands in Melbournes Domain.

When you join the Melbourne University Rugby Football Club you realise that a few honour boards would not be a bad investment. The clubhouse heresay on who did what when in the Clubs history is less than factual at times. But one thing every player can tell you without hesitation, the proud boast of everyone who wears the black and blue is that “Weary” Dunlop wore the strip for Melbourne Uni Rugby Club. He was also a Wallaby and President of the Club in the 1950s and a supporter for the rest of his life.

Most Australians would know the name Edward “Weary” Dunlop, and the story is a handsome legacy that MURFC is proud to keep alive through its long association with him.

Sir Edward Weary Dunlop was a surgeon in the Australian Army during World War Two. He served in the Middle East and he is legendary for his care of soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese.

His nickname might have been “Weary” but his nature certainly was not.

Even in the most horrific conditions Weary found energy to fight for the wellbeing and often, the lives of these men.

His nickname might have been “Weary” but his nature certainly was not.

Weary grew up on farms in country Victoria. He loved adventures and he liked to prove he was tougher than the rest. ” I used to walk down barefoot and jump on top of my favourite riding horse and round up the horses - it was quite an impressive cavalcade.” Weary was a natural athlete and at school in Benalla, he preferred to play sport than to study.

When he left school Weary took a job in a pharmacy. But he grew bored with small town life and headed for Melbourne in 1927. Here Weary took a new career path, and began studying medicine at Melbourne University. He also played with Australias national rugby team, The Wallabies, and was a champion boxer.

Soon after graduating Weary took a job as a ships surgeon and sailed to London. The next year World War Two broke out. Weary knew his skills were needed closer to the action.

“I just could not get into the army quick enough”

About a year after enlisting in the Australian Army, Weary was sent to the Middle East and from there to Java in Indonesia. The Japanese had attacked the island, and Weary was needed to help treat the casualties. But just two weeks after his arrival Japanese troops captured the town where Weary was living. The prisoners were taken by ship from Singapore to Burma, and then crammed into train carriages for a five day horror ride into Thailand.

The Japanese wanted to build a four hundred and twenty one kilometre long railway from west Thailand into Burma. The work required physical strength and good tools. The prisoners had neither. “I would see these fellas off at the crack of dawn, just carrying their rice for the day, and then they would drag in any time up until midnight, some of them on their hands and knees.”

I have a conviction that its only when you are put at full stretch that you can realise your full potential.

As a commander, Weary had the awful job of deciding who was fit enough to work. As a surgeon, he was also the one who patched the men up after their hours of hard labour. Standing nearly two metres tall, Weary had to stoop as he operated on patients beneath kerosene lamps.

Former prisoner of War, Bill Griffiths is among the many who owe their lives to Weary. The Japanese planned to kill him. What use is a disabled man, it was argued. Weary stepped in front of the bayonets and refused to move until Bills life was spared.

A habit of keeping track of the war via a hidden wireless also landed Weary in the firing line. “I got handcuffed around a tree, my tummy exposed to four bayonets and a countdown. Things were pretty grim.” Weary ended up being tortured instead but the experience only made him more defiant.

When the war was over, Weary continued to work as a surgeon in Australia and in Asia. In 1969 he was knighted in recognition of his contribution to medicine. Wearys compassionate nature enabled him to forgive and even meet, some of his former enemies.

Finally, in 1993, ten days short of his 86th birthday, Sir Edward Weary Dunlop died. Over ten thousand people lined the streets of Melbourne for the state funeral of the man they called “The Surgeon of the Railway”.

“I have a conviction that its only when you are put at full stretch that you can realise your full potential.”

Life of a legend

Date of birth	1907-07-12	Wangaratta, VIC.
Other	1924	Commenced a pharmacy apprenticeship at Benalla.
Other	1927	Moved to Melbourne to attend Pharmacy College.
Other	1930	Won a scholarship to Ormond College at Melbourne University to study medicine.
Other	1934	Graduated from Melbourne University with first class honours.
Other	1935	Joined the Royal Melbourne Hospital as a junior resident.
Date and unit at appointment (Officers)	1935	Australian Army Medical Corps.
Date commissioned	1935-07-01	Commissioned into the Australian Army Medical Corps with the rank of captain.
Other	1936	Appointed Senior Surgical Resident at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Other	1937	Joined the Childrens Hospital as Resident and graduated as a Master of Surgery from Melbourne University.
Other	1937	Graduated from Melbourne University as a Master of Surgery.
Other	1938-05	Left Australia for London aboard the SS Ormonde as the ships medical officer. That year in London he attended St Bartholomews Medical School and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Date and unit at enlistment (ORs)	1939-11-13	Enlisted in the 6th Division Australian Army Medical Corps with the rank of captain.
Other	1939-12	Posted as Medical Officer, Headquarters, Australian Overseas Base, Jerusalem, and appointed Acting Assistant Director of Medical Services.
Date promoted	1940-05-01	Appointed major and Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services on the staff of the Australian Corps Headquarters and AIF Headquarters in Gaza and Alexandria. Later Dunlop was appointed as AIF Medical Liaison Officer on the staff of the Deputy Director of Medical Services of Lusterforce, he served in both Greece and Crete.
Date promoted	1941-07-18	Appointed to command 2/2nd Casualty Clearing Station, but he was dissatisfied with staff work and declined this promotion. He remained with this unit as senior surgeon, and second in charge, and subsequently served with them in Tobruk.
Other	1942	With the withdrawal of the 6th and 7th Australian Divisions from the Middle East, Dunlop and 2/2nd Casualty Clearing Station were transferred to Java.
Date promoted	1942-02-26	Appointed temporary lieutenant colonel. He was in command of No 1 Allied General Hospital at Bandung.
Date captured	1942-03	The Japanese captured the hospital Dunlop was working at in Bandung and he became a prisoner of war. Dunlop and the prisoners of war under his command were then transferred to Singapore.
Other	1943-01-20	Dunlop and the prisoners of war under his command were transfered from Singapore to Thailand to work on the Burma-Thailand railway.
Date promoted	1945-09-27	Appointed lieutenant colonel.
Date returned to Australia	1945-10
Other	1945-12-10	Began work with Brigadier Blackburn at Army Headquarters as Assistant Director of Medical Services to Blackforce.
Date of discharge	1946-02-01	Demoblised and transferred to the Reserve List of Officers with the rank of honorary colonel.
Date of honour or award	1947-03-06	Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Other	1948	Made a fellow of the Royal Australiasian College of Surgeons.
Date of honour or award	1965-01-01	Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).
Date of honour or award	1969-01-01	Knight Bachelor.
Date of honour or award	1977	Australian of the Year.
Date of honour or award	1987-07-08	Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).
Date of honour or award	1992	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
Date of honour or award	1993	Knight Grand Cross (1st Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Royal Crown of Thailand.
Date of death	1993-07-02	Died after contracting pneumonia.
Date of burial	1993-07-12	Received state funeral at St Pauls Cathedral Melbourne, VIC.