Civilian Service Awards & Badges

Lot 4320    Session 14 (4.30pm Thursday 20th November)    Civilian Service Awards & Badges

Estimate $500
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $400

N.S.W. Ambulance Board Distinguished Service Medal, in sterling silver and enamel by Amor, Sydney, reverse inscribed, 'Sir Hugh Poate'.Good very fine.

Ex J. and J. Edwards Collection.

Sir Hugh Raymond Guy Poate (1884-1961), surgeon, was born on 16 January 1884 at Summer Hill, Sydney. He graduated in medicine at Sydney University in 1907 and was commissioned in the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1909. In August 1914 he enlisted as a Captain in the Australian Imperial Force, helped to recruit the 1st Field Ambulance and was promoted Major in February 1915. He was in charge of transports ferrying wounded back from Gallipoli to Egypt. During these voyages he spent much of his time operating, earning the nickname 'Lightning' for his swift and deft surgical technique. He moved with No.3 Australian General Hospital to England in September, then to Abbeville, France, in March 1917 and during the heavy fighting at Ypres often operated for sixteen hours a day. He had been promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in February. Eventually his health broke down, and he was repatriated late in 1917.

Back in Sydney, Poate conducted a busy private practice, operating mainly at R.P.A.H. He regularly undertook country tours in a chartered Tiger Moth aircraft. In 1929 he was appointed consulting surgeon to the Royal Australian Air Force, and was Group Captain during World War II. In 1938 he became lecturer in postgraduate surgery and director of the surgical unit at Prince Henry Hospital.

Deeply interested in the Order of St John of Jerusalem, Poate joined the St John Ambulance Brigade in 1913 and was State commissioner in 1929-42; the brigade flourished under his direction. He influenced all areas of the work of the order and its relations with its English headquarters and the Crown; in 1935 he was appointed Knight of Grace. When a commandery was formed to unite the order's State branches in 1942, Poate became its administrative head. In 1947, when the commandery was granted priory status as an independent branch of the English order, Poate became its chief executive as sub-prior, then chancellor. Under his direction, St John rose to national prominence as a voluntary agency specializing in health care and training. In 1955 he became the first Australian to be promoted bailiff grand cross.

Appointed M.V.O. in 1947 and knighted in 1952. He died on 26 January 1961 at his Bellevue Hill home and was cremated with Anglican rites. His portrait by Joshua Smith hangs in the headquarters of St John Ambulance Australia, Canberra. There is a plaque in his honour at St Andrews Cathedral, George & Bathurst Streets, Sydney, NSW.

The Sir Hugh Poate Training Centre, named in his honour, is located in Blaxland in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. It consists of dormitory accommodation, training rooms, main hall and parade ground and some bushland area. This facility is used for training St John Ambulance volunteers.