Charles George LambieFRSEMC (24 July 1891 – 28 August 1961) was a physician of Scots descent. He was the first doctor in Europe to use insulin in the treatment of diabetes. He came to later fame in the University of Sydney. Short of stature he was affectionately known as Wee Mon by his students.
Life
He was born on 24 July 1891 in Port of Spain in Trinidad the only son of Sophia Agnes Theresa Stollmeyer and her husband, Lt Col George Lambie, commanding officer of the Trinidad Light Infantry Volunteers. As a child he was a gifted musician and gave piano concerts at the age of 8.[1]
His career was immediately disrupted by World War I during which he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1915, and saw action in Mesopotamia but was invalided out for a year to India where he served as a pathologist in Poona (now Pune). In 1917 he returned to active service on the Somme, rising to the rank of Captain and winning a Military Cross for bravery in 1918.
In 1929 he declined a chair at the University of Aberdeen and instead travelled to Australia to take up the George Henry Bosch chair as Professor of Surgery at the University of Sydney. Here he worked with his predecessor Professor Harold R. Dew to completely reformulate the academic curriculum in the Medical Faculty.[7] Working with Victor Trikojus, Lambie reported the first purification of thyroid-stimulating hormone, in 1937. He came to the defence of Trikojus when he was arrested under wartime security regulations as an enemy alien in 1941. At the same time, he confirmed the "ardent Nazi leanings" of another colleague at the university, Henry Brose.[8]
Over and above his medical skills, Lambie was a skilled musician, studying composition under Edgar Bainton.
Artistic recognition
His portrait by Nora Heysen is held by the University of Sydney.
Family
In 1925 he married Eliza Anne Walton (1892-1965). They had two daughters, Brenda Jean (1926-2011) and Wilda Iona (1930-2011).
Publications
On the Locus of Insulin Action (1927)
Clinical Diagnostic Methods (1947); co-written with Jean Armytage
Light out of France (1951)
References
^ abcdBlackburn, C. R. B., "Lambie, Charles George (1891–1961)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 26 May 2019