Raphael Cilento
| Sir Raphael Cilento | |
|---|---|
Sir Raphael Cilento, December 1940
|
|
| Born |
Raphael West Cilento 2 December 1893 Jamestown, South Australia |
| Died |
15 April 1985 (aged 91) Oxley, Queensland |
| Education | Teacher, medical practitioner |
| Known for | Aiding Refugees Post World War II |
| Relatives | Lady Phyllis Cilento (wife) Diane Cilento (daughter) Jason Connery (grandson) |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Medical practitioner |
| Institutions | Australian Army's Tropical Force Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine (1922-24) Commonwealth Government's Division of Tropical Hygiene (1928-34) Queensland Health Department United Nations refugees and displaced Persons (1946-47) Australian League of Rights |
| Specialism | Administering Tropical Medicine |
| Research | Public health – tropical medicine |
| Notable prizes | Knighted 1935 |
Sir Raphael West Cilento (2 December 1893 – 15 April 1985), often known as "Ray", was a notable Australian medical practitioner and public health administrator.
Raphael Cilento was born in Jamestown, South Australia in 1893, son of Raphael Ambrose Cilento, a stationmaster (whose father Salvatore had emigrated from Naples, Italy in 1855), and Frances Ellen Elizabeth, née West. His younger brother Alan Watson West Cilento (born 1908) became General Manager of the Savings Bank of South Australia from 1961 to 1968. He was educated at Prince Alfred College, but although he was determined from an early age to study medicine, he was initially thwarted in doing so due to lack of money. Therefore, he trained first as a school teacher, sponsored by the Education Department, from 1908 and taught at Port Pirie in 1910 and 1911. He eventually entered the University of Adelaide Medical School on borrowed funds, but while there he won so many scholarships and other prizes that he ended his course with a respectable bank balance.
For the earlier part of his working life, Cilento's interests were mainly in public health and, specifically, tropical medicine. He served with the Australian Army's Tropical Force in New Guinea which superseded the German administration after the First World War. Later he joined the British colonial service in Malaya.
On his return to Australia he was Director of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine in Townsville, Queensland, from 1922 to 1924.
Following a further term in New Guinea, he became Director of the Commonwealth Government's Division of Tropical Hygiene in Brisbane. He held that role from 1928 to 1934.
In 1934 Queensland's Forgan Smith Government set out to create one of the world's first universally free public health systems, and then Minister for Health, Ned Hanlon, recruited Dr Raphael Cilento to achieve this goal as Director-General of Health and Medical Services. Cilento, despite his subsequent identification with the political right wing, never lost his belief in government-funded health care. To assist in his policy-making objectives, he studied law and was admitted to the Bar in 1939.
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