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Loch ness, special operations executive and the first surgeon in paradise: Robert Kenneth Wilson (26.1.1899-6.6.1969).

Watters DA

Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Melbourne and Barwon Health, Geelong Hospital, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. davidw@barwonhealth.org.au

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson (1899-1969) was a surgeon who fought in both world wars and joined the Special Operations Executive parachuting behind enemy lines into Holland, France and Borneo, the last mission being with Australian forces (Semut II). He was an expert on firearms and gave opinion on ballistics at the Old Bailey during the 1930s. He also wrote a definitive text on automatic pistols with editions published in 1943 and 1975. He was an Edinburgh Fellow (1926), who had a practice in general surgery and gynaecology in Queen Anne Street during the 1930s. He took the famous 1934 'surgeon's photo' of the Loch Ness monster that was not admitted to be a hoax until 1994. After World War II, he became the first surgical specialist to work in the public service of the then Territory of Papua and New Guinea (1950-1956), where he wrote several papers on surgical topics. He married Gwen (1924), the daughter of Henrietta Gulliver, an Australian painter. They had two sons, Richard and Phillip. After practice he retired to Melbourne where he died of carcinoma oesophagus.

Published 1 November 2007 in ANZ J Surg, 77(12): 1053-7.
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