Goldsbro’, Charles Field
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
MB 1866 MD 1868
Charles Field Goldsbro’ was the first person ever to receive the degrees of MB and MD at the University of Sydney, but never worked in Australia. Born in North Wales in 1828, Charles studied medicine in London, where he obtained his licences (MRCS and LSA) in 1856. He worked as House Surgeon at the Charing Cross Hospital and held a post as Assistant Medical Officer to the General Post Office, London. He left London to study medicine and surgery in Paris then going to Edinburgh where he obtained his LRCPEd by examination on 20 April 1860.
In 1960 he travelled as ship’s surgeon to New Zealand, where he obtained a number of official appointments: Coroner of the Gaol, Asylum and Hospital in the district of Auckland, Senior Surgeon of the Auckland Militia and Volunteers (winning a War Medal in the 1863 Waikato Campaign during the Maori Wars), Physician to the Parnell Orphans’ Home, President of the Pension Board, Medical Superintendent of Lock Hospital, and Acting Medical Superintendent of the District Hospital. He was also President of the Auckland Medical Society and an active Freemason in the Waitemata and Remuera Lodges between 1862 and 1870.
Upon coming to Sydney in 1868 he was accepted as a candidate for the MB examination under the newly promulgated ‘10-year rule’. He passed this examination and returned to New Zealand.
Citation: Mellor, Lise (2008) Goldsbro’, Charles Field. Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive, University of Sydney.
An alternate version appears in: Young, J A, Sefton, A J, Webb, N. Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine, (1984) Sydney University Press for The University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine.