Peter Jones Memorial Oration Medal

Peter Griffith Jones (1922-1995) was one of Australia's outstanding paediatric surgeons. He graduated MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1945, and took up a residency at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. In 1948 he was awarded the first Cleveland Fellowship to the University Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. From there he went to London to pursue his studies at the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, under the guidance of Sir Denis Browne. He obtained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) in 1950.

He returned to Melbourne in 1953 and took up a staff appointment at the Royal Children's Hospital. He remained attached to this hospital until his retirement in 1988. He was an enthusiastic teacher and researcher, with special expertise in torticollis (wry neck), infantile tumours, neonatal surgery and cardiac surgery of the young. In 1995 he was the first to receive the Distinguished Service Award of the Royal Children's Hospital.

In 1957 Peter Jones became one of the first two surgeons to gain the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in Paediatric Surgery.

Peter Jones was also very active in the broader profession, serving terms as Vice-President of the Medical Defence Association of Victoria, and as President of the Paediatric Society of Victoria, of the Medico-Legal Society of Victoria and of the Paediatric Association of Australia. He was Chairman of the Victorian State Committee of the College and in 1987 was elected to the Council, on which he served until 1994.

He had a talent for writing and publishing, becoming the founding editor of the Australian Paediatric Journal, and, during his time as demonstrator in Paediatric Surgery at the University of Melbourne, editor of Chiron, the journal of the University of Melbourne Medical Society. He was also a director of Blackwell's Scientific Publishing Australia. Another of his great interests was heraldry, and he designed coats-of-arms for the Royal Children's Hospital and the Medical Defence Association of Victoria. His interest in heritage led to his appointment as Honorary Principal Curator and Honorary Librarian of the RACS.

• The Peter Jones Memorial Oration will normally be delivered biannually, but at the discretion of Council may be delivered annually.
• The orator is to be appointed by Council following recommendations from the Executive Committee of the Australasian Association of Paediatric Surgeons.
• The oration will be given on the occasion of a meeting of the Australasian Association of Paediatric Surgeons, or at an appropriate meeting of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
• The appointee is styled The Peter Jones Memorial Orator.
• The award will take the form of a bronze medal.

2018 - Albert Shun
2016 - Professor Spencer Beasley - Tomorrow's complete surgeon
2014 - Professor John Hutson - The descent of the testis : where has it come from and where is it going?
2012 - Hugh Martin - Peter Jones and his 4 Hs
2010 - Rosslyn Walker - Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis (all things change) 
2008 - Keith Stokes - Transition, a Challenge at any Time
2006 - Alexander Auldist - Liver Resection in Children
2004 - Stuart Ferguson - A Brief History of Paediatric Day-Stay Surgery
2002 - M. Glasson - Peter Jones FRACS - The Man and his Legacy
2000 - E.D. Smith - Denis Browne - Maverick or Master Surgeon?
1998 - N.A. Myers - There is Nothing as Permanent as Change