Kiernan John Joseph Dorney

Kiernan John Joseph "Skipper" Dorney CBE DSO AM (9 January 1912 – 30 August 2007) was an Australian surgeon and one of the most decorated doctors of the Australian war effort.

He was educated at St Kevin's College in Melbourne, and studied engineering at Melbourne University before transferring to medicine, in which he graduated in 1937. He worked at St Vincent's Hospital before enlisting in the armed forces on 4 December 1939. First posted to Liberia, he subsequently served in Greece and Crete, where he was captured by the invading Germans. He escaped the prisoner of war camp and lived in hiding until he was able to gain passage on a Royal Navy boat to Egypt. Following a period of illness, he then served in Syria with the 9th Division, and then in New Guinea; during a leave in Melbourne between Syria and New Guinea, he was married and promoted to major. He received the Distinguished Service Order for acts of bravery in New Guinea.

Later promoted to lieutenant colonel, Dorney commanded the 2/3 Field Ambulance in Labuan and Borneo, and during the war was thrice mentioned in despatches (twice in Africa and once in New Guinea). Following the war he returned to surgical training, becoming fully qualified in 1947. From 1947 to 1949 he was medical superintendent at Latrobe Hospital in Tasmania before he was recruited to become medical superintendent of Townsville General Hospital. In 1952 he volunteered to serve in the Korean War, where he was a surgeon with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. On his return, finding that his post at Townsville had been filled, he moved into private practice. He served briefly as medical superintendent following his successor's retirement in 1971.

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