Douglas Harry Kedgwin Lee Turns 100

Douglas Harry Kedgwin LEE is arguably one of the most brilliant men ever to have been enrolled as a student at Nudgee College and is one of our most distinguished Nudgee Old Boys. He celebrated his one hundredth birthday on Sunday 22nd February 2005.

Details used in the following article concerning him have been taken from “A Global Scientist” by Henry Malcolm Whyte, published for the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Queensland.

Doug Lee left Australia in 1948 to take up his first appointment in the United States of America. He returned and took up residence in Brisbane in June 1990.He visited the College some years ago and it is hoped that a further visit can be arranged to celebrate his Centenary and to honour him as a Most Distinguished Nudgee Old Boy.

Douglas Harry Kedgwin LEE was born in Bristol England on 22nd February 1905. He commenced school at St Barnabas School, Bristol in 1909. His parents emigrated to Australia in 1915. They settled in Mackay and Doug attended the Mackay State School. His Mother died in 1917. In that same year he gained high marks in the State Scholarship examination thereby winning entry to any secondary school in the State. On the advice of a neighboring farmer’s family St Joseph’s Nudgee College was chosen. The Lees were not Catholics; the choice of school was made on scholastic grounds.

Doug traveled, by himself, on a coastal steamer and was met at the wharf in the Brisbane River by a senior student of the College.

His memories of school included: being awakened by the angelus bell at 6a.m., chapel at 6.15, breakfast at 7, classes from 8 till 4p.m., sports, dinner at 6, and study till bedtime. Assignments, discipline, the cane, and the strap. Some wonderful teaching Brothers, others so so. Boarding school food, relieved by parcels from home. Pocket money, a shilling per week. As for sport ‘I was hopeless at sport – and of them all I was worst by far at cricket. It was no wonder that I had to concentrate on scholarship by way of mitigating the disgrace.’ He kicked a football around and performed passably at gymnastics and well at drill. Holidays were spent at school or with friends in Brisbane or sometimes in the longer ones, going home to Mackay in saloon comfort, thanks to the shipping company’s reduced group fares for students, or overland using the disjointed rail/road service.

As was usual in those days he was officially enrolled to take eight subjects in his two junior years – English, Latin, French, Arithmetic, Geometry, Algebra, History and Chemistry. In addition he studied Physiology on his own. In the State Junior Public Examinations in 1919 he won the ‘Thomas Joseph Byrnes Memorial Gold Medal’ by obtaining the highest aggregate marks in the State.

Naturally, his success was lauded by the College, and he was given privileged treatment and groomed for the next big hurdle, the Senior Public Examination of the University of Queensland. He says that even his clumsiness at cricket was forgiven! As a non-Catholic in good standing he was excused from attending chapel daily, provided he spent the time studying but he still had to attend Mass on Sunday. Boys being boys, especially in their adolescent years, there was betting as to how long the Sunday ceremony would last and this particular mini-rebel would spend the time spotting errors in the ritual. He resisted efforts to involve him in Irish history, opening his chemistry book instead, and brazenly substituting a red rose for an Irish badge when leading a parade on a special occasion.

His subjects for study in the senior years were English, French, Latin, Mathematics A, Mathematics B and Chemistry. He particularly loved English, devouring the set pieces and reading the notes and commentaries of no less than five different editions of the prescribed Shakespearian play. He was shocked when he was judged to have failed this favourite subject in the final examination. A failure scarcely mitigated by the knowledge that he had scored so well in the other subjects that, overall, he had come thirteenth in the State Senior Examination. It proved to be a turning point in his approach to studying for exams: instead of hurriedly reading in and around a subject, driven by sheer interest, he learned to be more systematic: “I developed the technique that has virtually carried me ever since – extract, compile the extracts, memorize the compilation”

He passed the Supplementary Examination and in 1921 became one of the top twenty students in the State awarded an Open Scholarship to the University of Queensland. Five of these were Nudgee Students. Doug Lee was one of them.

Two other experiences at Nudgee were significant in relation to Doug’s activities in his later professional life. One, he assisted Br Phelan in the College Infirmary during a measles epidemic and in the 1919 Influenza pandemic. The other, he recorded temperatures and rainfall at the meteorological station at the College.

In 1922 Doug booked into St Leo’s College and enrolled at the University of Queensland. He was greatly influenced by Professor E J Goddard, the newly appointed Professor of Biology. Goddard became ‘a major force in the establishment of the faculties of Agriculture, Dentistry, Medicine, Veterinary Science and the Diploma Course in Physiotherapy at the University. He was the catalyst by which the Faculty of Medicine came into being when it did.’ The depth and lastingness of the impression made by Goddard on Lee cannot be over-emphasised.

In 1933 Lee and his wife sailed to England where he procured the Sharpey Scholarship, Department of Physiology, University College, London. Rockefeller Fellowship to Harvard University followed in 1934. In 1935 Doug Lee was appointed Professor of Physiology, King Edward V11 College of Medicine, Singapore. He resigned after six months to accept appointment as Foundation Professor of Physiology at University of Queensland in 1936. He continued in this position until 1948. From 1938 to 1942 he was also Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at University of Queensland.

From1948 to 1955 Doug Lee held the position of Professor of Physiological Climatology at John Hopkins University. In 1955 he was appointed to the Office of the Quartermaster General. US Army as Chief of the Research Branch until 1957 and then until 1960 as Associate Scientific Director of Research. From 1960 to 1967 he was Chief, Occupational Health Research and Training facility, Ohio and from 1966 to 1973 Associate Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, North Carolina.

He finally returned home to Brisbane in 1990 and we hope to see him often at the College.