John Cobley

John Cobley (1914-1989), doctor, historian and television host, studied at State schools, won a scholarship to the University of Sydney and graduated in medicine and science in 1937. Proceeding to England as a ship’s surgeon, he undertook further training before returning to Sydney to work at Sydney Hospital and in private practice in Macquarie Street. Commissioned on 1 July 1940 as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps, AIF, he served in the Greek campaign (1941), in the occupation of Syria (1941) and the battle of El Alamein, Egypt. In 1943-45 he was in New Guinea as a major and was mentioned in despatches, probably for his work on scrub typhus. Back in Sydney his chief interest was diabetes, on which he worked at the Royal Hospital for Women, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Blue Mountains District Anzac Memorial Hospital. He was a member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, of which he became a Fellow in 1978. From 1966 to 1968, he appeared on Sydney television as ‘Dr John’ on Channel Seven’s Casebook. Over a period of more than twenty years between 1962 and 1986, helped by his wife, he published a series entitled Sydney Cove. The five volumes, recording daily events in the settlement from 1788 to 1800 in the words of contemporary writers, contributed much to the popularisation of Australian history. He wrote scholarly articles on medicine in the colony in the early days of settlement, and several biographies for the Australian Dictionary of Biography. His books include The Convicts 1788-1792 (1964), The Crimes of the First Fleet Convicts (1970) and The Crimes of the Lady Juliana Convicts, 1790 (1989).

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
© Estate of Nora Heysen