William Refshauge

Major General Sir William Dudley Duncan Refshauge, AC, CBE, ED, FRCOG (3 April 1913 – 27 May 2009) was an Australian soldier and public health administrator.

He was Honorary Physician to Queen Elizabeth II (1955–64), director-general of the Australian Government Department of Health (1960–73), and secretary-general of the World Medical Association (1973–76).

In 1939, when the Second World War started, Refshauge joined the Second Australian Imperial Force as a medical officer with the rank of captain in the 2nd Field Ambulance.

[citation needed] After the war, Refshauge decided to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology and became a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

He assisted in the establishment of the Army School of Health at Healesville, Victoria, and adopted a system of training and recruiting medical officers.

[7] In the international field, Refshauge attended many meetings of the World Health Organization as chief Australian delegate.

[9][failed verification] He led the RSL Tour of the Battlefields of Europe to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Remembrance Day on 11 November 1978.

[12] In 1987 he was appointed chairman of a planning committee to develop a Menzies Centre for Population Health Research within the University of Tasmania.

In 1959, Refshauge was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to the army,[13] and in 1965 was awarded the Efficiency Decoration (ED).

In 1942, Refshauge married Helen Elizabeth Allwright, a senior nursing sister at the Alfred Hospital, and they had four sons and a daughter.

[21] In 2001 he was one of 43 prominent Australians who were co-signatories of a letter to the Prime Minister, John Howard, calling for the lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq.