(1892-1976)
Arthur
Amies came from Western Australia to study Dental Science at the University,
graduating BDSc in 1924, after which he studied in Edinburgh and spent
a year in London, Vienna and the United States before returning to Melbourne
and working towards his DDSc, which he took in 1929. In 1933 he gained
his diploma of laryngology and otology. He became a fellow of the Royal
Australasian College of Surgeons in 1934 and was appointed Professor
of Dental Science the same year, an appointment which carried with it
that of Dean of the Faculty, principal of the Australian College of
Dentistry and Dean of the Dental Hospital.
Amies was convinced from the outset of the need to establish an independent
dental hospital and school and equally determined that the new facility
should offer in-patient accommodation. The hospital was opened in 1963,
nearly 30 years after Amies had been appointed. He retired in 1967 in
which year the Arthur Amies Ward was named.
He was resolutely opposed to fluoridation of the water supply, an issue
on which the population at large as well as dentists were divided.
In World War II Arthur Amies served with the 4th Australian General
Hospital in Tobruk and in a facio-maxillary and plastic unit attached
to the 2nd Australian General Hospital in Egypt. He was nominated to
Legacy in 1945 and served as its president 10 years later.
Arthur Amies served on the Council of Queen’s College from 1945 to
1976, chaired the Professorial Board in 1956 and briefly acted as Vice-Chancellor
on two occasions. A formal man, he was not averse to the ceremonial
aspect of University life; indeed the Australian Dictionary of Biography
tells us that he was ‘happiest in full academic dress, or in white tie
and decorations’.
