Anderson Stuart dies in 1920
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
On 29 February 1920, Professor Anderson Stuart suffered an early death from inoperable abdominal cancer. He had become aware of the cancer in 1919 and is said to have faced the last eleven months of his life with fortitude and consideration for others. The students attending his last lecture in 1919, including his son Bouverie, stamped and sang through the lecture period then attached ropes to Anderson Stuart's car and towed the family Buick from the University down to Broadway as a tribute. In his time with the Faculty of Medicine, Anderson Stuart created one of the most important medical schools in the Empire outside of Britain. His name is extensively commemorated in the University. The old Medical School, for one, is now appropriately called the Anderson Stuart Building (since 1960) and features Anderson Stuart's coat of arms and the initials AS on the façade above the main entrance along with a carved raven, said to recall the Dean.
Towards the end of his life he dictated lengthy memoirs to biographer William Epps from his bed, attended by colleagues Alexander MacCormick and Robert Scot Skirving. He was buried in the Presbyterian section of South Head cemetery. His wife and their four sons, two of whom became medical practitioners, survived him.[1]
- Next article in timeline: James Thomas Wilson becomes third Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1920