[1] Appointed the first director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, he died on 18 May 1915, from wounds received in action on 10 May 1915 during the Gallipoli campaign, before he could take up the position.

[4] Soon after his birth, the family moved to Elsternwick, Victoria, where both his father and younger brother Robert Mackay (born 1894) died in 1895.

[7][8][9][10][11] As a member of Ormond College, Mathison studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, receiving many academic awards, from 1901 to 1905.

[20] Mathison was attached as a medical officer to the 5th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force at the time of the Battle of Gallipoli.

[22] This cross has been erected and a triennial lectureship founded by the friends of Gordon Clunes McKay Mathison, M.D., B.Sc., first director of the clinical laboratory now included in this institute, who died of wounds received at Gallipoli 18th May, 1915, aged 31 years "Being made perfect in a short time, he fulfilled a long time.