20/08/2026
STEPHEN WILLIAM DOBELL-BROWN
Squadron Leader, Surgeon & General Practitioner (1912-1986)
Doctor Stephen William Dobell-Brown (S.B. St. J. 1) was born in Orange NSW in 1912. He graduated from The University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1938.
In 1940 he joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as a flight lieutenant serving in Singapore and New Guinea as a Squadron Leader (S/LDR). As Commanding Officer of an RAAF hospital, he made history by landing with troops at Aitape, New Guinea and was responsible for establishing a field tent hospital. Set up within three hours it included an operating theatre with canvas-cover and sandbagged roof. Completely self-contained, the hospital was equipped with an X-ray machine, sterilising plant, power plant, refrigerators and kitchen accommodating eighty patients. S/LDR Dobell-Brown was injured while carrying out his duties when the hospital came under fire from Japanese forces. He was mentioned in military despatches twice for distinguished service.
Following his release from the armed services he was appointed Resident Medical
Officer at the Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington in 1944, training in obstetrics. In 1946 he married Doctor Loraine Georgina Allen, who also studied at The University of Sydney, graduating in 1942 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery.
Together with two brothers (Noel Glen and David Leslie) the Dobell-Brown husband and wife Doctors, Stephen William and Loraine Georgina, cared for the Liverpool community at their successful George Street practice for up to forty years.
IMAGE: Flight Lieutenant V. J. O’Reilly RAAF (Gordon, NSW) and Squadron Leader S.W. Dobell-Brown (Rose Bay, NSW) sterilise their hands in a bowl outside the operating theatre, Aitape North East New Guinea c1944, Australian War Memorial Collection.
