Frank Macfarlane Burnet OM AK KBE (1899 - 1985)

Born 3 Sep 1899 in Traralgon, Victoria (Australia)

Ancestors

Died 31 Aug 1985 at age 85 in Port Fairy, Victoria, Australia

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• Visit © National Portrait Gallery 2018, 4 portraits.

Biography

Frank Burnet OM AK KBE is Notable.

A man who threw off ideas like sparks which caused a blaze that leapt across to the minds of others ^[1]

Epitaph on Sir Frank's headstone, Tower Hill Cemetery.

Australian of the Year 1960

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet was the inaugural winner of the Australian of the Year award for 1960, which was announced in 1961. In 1960 Sir Frank also won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in immunology. . ABC Radio..

Despite the Victorian-centric selection panel — it comprised the Victorian premier, the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, the vice chancellor of Melbourne University, the lord mayor of Melbourne, and the president of the National Council for Women — the selection of Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet was a popular one. He represented the desire of the Victorian Australia Day Council to recognise "an Australian who had made an outstanding contribution to Australia's culture, economy, art, or science".

For Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, his win was "a source of considerable pride", according to his entry in the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society.

It was one of dozens of accolades he won over the course of a career that spanned the globe and helped shape medicine, vaccinations and immunology. ^[1]

Parents and Childhood

Sir Frank Macfarlane (Mac) Burnet ^{[2] [3]} (1899-1985), medical scientist, was born on 3 September 1899 at Traralgon, Victoria, second of seven children of Frank Burnet, bank manager, and his wife Hadassah, née McKay.

Born in Scotland, his father Frank migrated to Australia as a young man; his mother Hadassah was born in Victoria and also had Scottish forebears.

Presumably to distinguish him from his father, the boy was known as Mac from an early age, and the sobriquet stuck. The family does not seem to have been close. Hadassah was busy looking after a handicapped daughter and Frank Snr was a somewhat remote authority figure.

A shy, serious child, Mac had a passion for reading. The family moved to Terang in 1909, and during rambles in the countryside the lad developed an avid interest in collecting and drawing beetles.

Following his primary education at Traralgon and Terang state schools, Mac boarded at Geelong College on a scholarship. He later recounted that these years were not particularly happy, due in part to his retiring nature.

University and Residency

Despite the difficulties at Geelong College he did well academically, winning a scholarship to Ormond College, University of Melbourne (MB, BS, 1922; MD, 1924), where he continued to excel. He came second in a class that included notable Australians (Dame) Jean Macnamara, (Sir) Roy Cameron, (Professor) Rupert Willis and (Dame) Kate Campbell.

During his residency at the (Royal) Melbourne Hospital, he became fascinated with the intellectual challenges of neurology, but his superiors deemed him more suitable for laboratory than clinical work. He was appointed a senior resident in pathology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and Medicine. . . . more . . adb.anu.edu

Marriage

Frank Macfarlane Burnet married Edith Linda Marston Druce in Victoria in 1928. ^[3] They had 2 daughters and a son. ^[4]

Death

Sir Frank died of cancer in 1985 in Victoria's Port Fairy, and is buried in the Tower Hill Cemetery next to his grandparents. ^{[3] [5]}

Reference Notes

Contacted the State Library of Victoria on 21 January 2019 requesting permission for WikiTree to use a copyrighted photo . Virginia Miltrup

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Neal,M., ABC News, "Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, the first Australian of the Year, and how the award came to be", retrieved online 21 Jan 2019
2. ↑ G. J. V. Nossal, Burnet, Sir Frank Macfarlane (Mac) (1899–1985), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,
   published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 21 January 2019.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} State Government of Victoria BDM Event Registration number (Birth30438)(Marriage 8727) (Death22396)
4. ↑ Who’s Who in Australia, 1921-1950, volume 1947, page 192
5. ↑ Public Record Office Victoria; North Melbourne, Victoria; Victorian Wills, Probate and Administration Records 1841-1925; Series: VPRS 7591, Probate Granted 17 Oct 1985.

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q193550, en:Wikipedia
• 1960 Australian of the Year
• WikiTree: Australian Knights and Dames; accessed 2 Jul 2024.
• WikiTree: Australian Knights and Dames; accessed 13 Jul 2024.