Dr Thomas Christopher Kenneth Brown

Education and qualifications

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

Kester travelled to Canada after graduating and undertook a rotating internship in the Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario as a preliminary to an assistantship in GP in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Duties included giving anaesthetics and, after a year, he sought more training by moving to Vancouver General Hospital. Three and half years there included two months paediatric anaesthesia, and two six month attachments to the Department of Medicine, one as a research assistant. He then spent 1967 in a training post at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia, before becoming medical officer for the ICU at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital. He spent the rest of his career there, serving as its Director of Anaesthesia from 1974 until his retirement in 2000.

Professional interests and activities

Teaching and research were major activities throughout Kester’s career, with the prime foci including every aspect of paediatric anaesthesia and helping those in developing countries. His book ‘Anaesthesia for Children’ (with G C Fisk) was a classic used by many during the latter part of the 20th century because of its practical approach. With his colleague Noel Cass, he turned Melbourne Children’s Hospital Department into one with a major reputation.

Teaching and research were major activities throughout Kester’s career, with the prime foci including every aspect of paediatric anaesthesia and helping those in developing countries. His book ‘Anaesthesia for Children’ (with G C Fisk) was a classic used by many during the latter part of the 20th century because of its practical approach. With his colleague Noel Cass, he turned Melbourne Children’s Hospital Department into one with a major reputation.

He made huge contributions to a range of organisations, and was honoured in many ways, notably by being made a Member of the Australian Order of Merit, but also FRCA by election; FCA(SA) by election; honorary membership of APAGBI (having been a founder member); Robert Orton Medal & Gilbert Brown Prize from ANZCA; life membership, Gilbert Troup Medal & Gilbert Brown Award from the Australian Society which each year has The Kester Brown Lecture given by the keynote speaker at the opening session at its National Scientific Congress; and the Ben Barry Medal from ‘Anaesthesia & Intensive Care’. For the WFSA he made many visits to many countries, organised the scientific programme for the very successful 1996 World Congress in Sydney, and served as its president for 2000-4.

Other biographical information

The son of medical missionaries of Scottish origin he was, like many expatriates,  much attached to his ‘native’ country, particularly the area around St Andrews & Dundee, the centres where he studied medicine. His early life and later travels gave him a wide circle of friends who he tried to visit as often as possible on his tours. He met his wife Janet, a physiotherapist from Melbourne, while in Vancouver, and they had a long and happy marriage, leading to five children & 13 grandchildren.

His hobbies and non-medical interests were almost limitless, perhaps summarised as people, the world and story telling. He was a keen sportsman, especially tennis and hockey, a keen photographer and an expert watercolour painter. Autobiographical books, ‘Catalyst’ and ‘Free Spirit’, record and illustrate every aspect of his life, including one which many others might have chosen to forget: he took great delight in claiming to be the last person ever to fail Melbourne’s Diploma in Anaesthetics, although he did pass the FFARACS later the same year! 

Author and Sources

Author: Prof Tony Wildsmith

Sources and any other comments: Brown K. Catalyst, The Medical Memoirs of a World Anaesthetist. Melbourne, Brolga Publishing 2004. ISBN 1-920785-38-8 | Brown K. Free Spirit. Illustrated memoirs and Related Topics. Melbourne, Brolga Publishing 2005. ISBN 1-920785-53-1 | National Archives of Australia | Ancestry.co.uk | Melbourne University | Prof David Hatch | Photograph from the author’s collection.