To commemorate 100 years since the Armistice, we would like to introduce you to 100 members of Caulfield RSL over the next 100 days
Dr John Arthur Hopkins Sherwin
John Arthur Hopkins Sherwin was born in Forbes, NSW in Dec 1881. later moving to Melbourne to pursue a career in medicine.
He left Melbourne on 18 May 1915 on RMS Mooltan as a member of the 3rd Australian General Hospital and Reinforcements.
Returning to Australia in 1917, he commenced practice in Elsternwick as a general practitioner and at Collins Street as a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist.
In 1919 he was elected as the 1st President of the Caulfield RSL, a position he held for a year.
In 1927 he relinquished his general practice and thereafter confined his work to that of a consultant gynaecologist.
Again war intervened, and in 1940 Sherwin, now Colonel Sherwin, was called upon to establish and command the 15th Australian General Hospital at Heidelberg. This was a tremendous undertaking, since the hospital had to be built, equipped, staffed, organized, and administered. This task he successfully completed, and he returned to private practice in 1944.
Sherwin took a great interest in the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade of which he was a member for 25 years and Commissioner of Victoria for five years. He rose through the lesser grades to become Knight of Grace and received its insignia at Buckingham Palace from King George VI after his coronation. He was a member of the Council of St. John’s Ambulance Association and of the Victorian Division of the British Red Cross for many years, and he also held the position of Controller and Organiser of Voluntary Aid Detachments. He was a member of the original midwives examining board with Felix Meyer, George Horne, and Miss Anderson, and he sat on the Medical Board of Victoria from 1932 to 1945. He was a Fellow of both the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (1935) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (1937).
Sherwin was modest in demeanour and was respected for his integrity. He was popular with his colleagues, punctilious in his duties, and conscientious in his work. He was impelled by a high sense of duty and he cheerfully and freely served the community in many spheres.
Quick fact: Sherwin's sister Eva was a nurse in World War 1, serving in England and France for 2 years.
Lest we forget