Gwen Fleming was born in Taree, New South Wales, on 9 June 1916, the third of John and Caroline Lusby’s six children.
She graduated in medicine from the University of Sydney in 1939, just in time to answer the call to military service. Appointed to the rank of Captain, Gwen worked at Yaralla Military Hospital at Concord (“They called me ‘Sir’, during the war”). In 1945, she became the first woman major in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps and was subsequently appointed Officer Commanding Medical Company.
Gwen was innately altruistic and held a firm Christian belief that God travelled through human action. Among the gifts that she brought to medicine were clarity of judgement, patience of manner and accuracy of diagnosis. To her, gaining the trust of the patient was part of the healing. In her last weeks, Gwen suffered from severe angina and a subsequent heart attack, and passed away on 18 January 2011. She is survived by her sister, Sr Elizabeth Lusby OP, and children Margaret, Paul, Justin, Judith and Peter — another son, James, died in 1999.
