Walter Drowley Filmer (1 September 1865 – 24 August 1944) was an early pioneer of X-rays in Australia, a wireless engineer, for a time ran the British Royal Train, and a world class entomologist that discovered several new species in his homeland.
[3][9][7][8] Filmer received an appointment as wireless engineer to the Douglas Mawson Expedition to the South Pole, but was unable to accept since the Railway Department would not grant him a release to participate.
[14][15][16] In 1930, Filmer collected 3 cestodes at Tuggerah from a fresh water tortoise, Chelodina longicollis, and submitted these to the South Australian Museum for identification.
[17][18] As previously mentioned, Filmer is credited in the animalia and insecta world, with species named in his honor for significant contributions.
Not the historical fact that the events occurred, but the claim of who accomplished what first, and who should receive credit for being the first in Australia to perform medical radiography.
Australia Post decided a fair way was to depict all three individuals on a postage stamp, issued to coincided and commemorate the 100th anniversary of Wilhelm Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays.
On 7 September 1995, Father Joseph Patrick Slattery, Thomas Lyle, and Walter Drowley Filmer were recognized as the pioneers of X-ray technology in Australia.