Note about Professor Harold Whitridge (Pete) Davies ED MB BS FRACP 1894 - 1946

Harold Whitridge Davies was born on 27 June 1894 in Adelaide. He was the eldest son of Dr Edward Harold Davies and Ina Jane Deland (daughter of a Gawler businessman). His father was a musician, Professor of Music and Director of the Elder Conservatorium of the University of Adelaide. Davies went to Prince Alfred College where he joined the Army Cadet Corps. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1917 and whilst at the University continued his military career in the Citizen Military Forces as a Lieutenant in the 78th Infantry Battalion. He started medicine as the Acting House Physician in the Isolation Block and assistant in the Venereal Night Clinic at the Adelaide Hospital.

Davies was appointed as a Captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps on 6 July 1917. He was described as 5ft 11in in height, medium complexion and fair hair with grey eyes. He was attached as General Reinforcements and embarked in Sydney for England in August 1917. He went on to France and was posted to 1 AGH in Rouen in November 1917. In January 1918 he was posted to 9 Fd Amb, and in April 1917 he was posted as the Medical Officer to 33 Battalion. He subsequently became sick with what was described as debility and sent on leave to England in July 1918. In September 1918 he was posted to 3 Pioneer Battalion in France as the Medical Officer. Davies returned to London in early 1919 and was given leave to attend a Medical Research course.

He then was given 3 months leave without pay from June 1919 to work to study the effects of dust inhalation at Askhurst Military Hospital in Oxford in the laboratory of Dr J.S. Haldane. It was reported that he had taken an ‘exceptionally keen’ interest in the subject of his research and he rendered ‘valuable service’ throughout his stay at Askhurst. He returned to Australia in July 1920 and appointment terminated 12 August 1920. He was issued the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He continued with his research interest after the war and went to Edinburgh with Professor JC Meakins with whom he had worked at Oxford. He was appointed a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in 1923 for one year at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in New York. Here he was associated with some of the leading respiratory physiologists in America.

In 1930 Davies returned to Australia as the Professor of Physiology at the University of Sydney. He supported staff members to be awarded Rockefeller fellowships. In 1933 and 1934 Davies made two expeditions to Central Australia to study the possibility that Aborigines living in the hot, arid conditions there could have become especially adapted to water deprivation. The first expedition, with Wardlaw and three students, was to Hermannsburg, 70 miles (113 km) south-west of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. The second, which included T. G. Strehlow, was to Mount Liebig, 155 miles (249 km) north-west of Alice Springs. They concluded that there was no significant difference between the Black and the White man's adaptation to water deprivation. These findings were published as Energy Metabolism and Insensible Perspiration of Australian Aborigines by H.S. Halcro Wardlaw, H. Whitridge Davies, M.R. Joseph.

Faced with formidable difficulties in building up the department of physiology, Davies proved unable to sustain his initial impact. When he had come to Sydney the Depression was at its worst and there was little possibility of making new staff appointments. In addition, the department was responsible for teaching both biochemistry and physiology, and from 1935 classes in pharmacology became an added burden. In the face of these difficulties, he began drinking heavily.

Unmarried, 'Pete' Davies was a kind and generous man who was held in affectionate regard by his many friends. He was a competent cellist and a bon viveur. An honorary consultant physiologist at three teaching hospitals, he became a foundation fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1938. That year a complaint from the medical students' society about the teaching of physiology and pharmacology was upheld by an investigatory sub-committee of the university's senate. In consequence, pharmacology was removed from the department of physiology and a separate department of biochemistry was established.

The outbreak of World War II provided Davies with a diversion from the cares of his department. An army reservist from 1920, he was mobilized as lieutenant colonel in June 1941 and commanded the 9th Field Ambulance for seven months; he was bitterly disappointed not to be sent overseas and relinquished his post in January 1942. Reports of his excessive drinking obliged the vice-chancellor to suspend him from duty at the university in May 1946. A committee of senate appointed to inquire into the suspension decided on 24 May to recommend that Davies be informed that the university no longer required his services. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 7 June that year, as a result of falling down the stairs in the Imperial Service Club, Barrack Street, Sydney, and was cremated with Anglican rites.

Sources: Davies, Harold Whitridge (1894–1946) by P. O. Bishop https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/davies-harold-whitridge-9913
Family History from Dr Walford Thyer.