John Hartley Williams
John Hartley Williams FRACS
General Surgeon
22 October 1926 - 6 June 2016
John Hartley Williams died on the 6 June 2016 on the eve of his 90th year in Hobart. He was, for many years, one of the corner stones of the Department of Surgery of the Launceston General Hospital and our Fellowship mourns his death.
John Williams qualified first as a pharmacist after the WW II, then turned his hand to Medicine. He therefore arrived to surgery a little later than his counterparts with a more mature attitude. He gained his Fellowship of the RACS in 1962 and was the surgical fellow at the Launceston General Hospital in 1963. He furthered his surgical studies in Leicester, England before returning to be on the staff of the Launceston General Hospital in 1967 as a general surgeon.
The following 25 years saw his developing a strong reputation as a highly capable general surgeon with an increasing interest in colorectal surgery, paralleling a sub-specialisation trend which was also occurring across Australia during that time. Being one of the rare naturally gifted surgeons, his surgery was known to be exacting, precise and bloodless. John was reputed to be highly punctual. He expected a high standard of surgery in his disciples and did not tolerate carelessness, some would say unpreparedness. He was a left hander and made much of his left handedness throughout his career. All his left handed registrars have said that they learned most of their operating manoeuvres from him. He shared rooms with another pioneering surgeon, D I Roberts, for most of their working lives. Mr Roberts, now in his nineties, has often stated that they had never had a cross word. Together with R N Gale, they transitioned General Surgery at the Launceston General Hospital into subspecialties. In conjunction with the orthopaedic surgeons, they developed the LGH's strong reputation as a surgical teaching hospital. The comparison phrase " Your operating is reminiscent of Mr Williams " used to be bestowed by experienced operating nurses as a compliment to a new surgeon who is seen as a neat and precise operator, years after John Williams had retired
For all the exacting standards, life was not dull as John Williams was well remembered for his sense of humour. In the operating theatre tea room, he had a left-hander coffee mug with a hole near the rim to catch unauthorised right-handed users off guard and it is said that more than one anaesthetists have had to change into a new scrub suit after a trip to the tea room. His registrars remember him as having a 'soft centre' despite the pretensions of a gruff exterior. He was a horticulturalist of some note, having grown blueberries and prize winning roses. One of his registrars remembers being given a large bunch of magnificent roses by John to give to his wife out of the blue one day. Mr Williams had been incensed that the rose that his registrar wore on his lapel the previous day - stolen from the garden of the nurses' quarters - was of such poor quality and aesthetics.
John Williams was also very much a family man, devoted to his wife Patricia and his three children whose upbringings were quite hands on. Patricia is fondly remembered by most of their colleagues as being kind, supportive and loving, the rock on which John built his career. John retired at the end of 1991 to Hobart to be with his family and was much missed by his colleagues in Launceston.
Written by Hung Nguyen FRACS with contributions from Amanda Young FRACS and Michael Monsour FRACS
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