Boucaut Dr Hilary

Fast Facts

Type of person

Individual

 

Dr Hilary Ray Penn Boucaut, a South Australian who completed his medical degree at London Hospital, UK, came to Mallala in 1932 and practised there until 1947. Emergencies occurred. There were no operating or obstetric facilities available. Doctors were forced to improvise, and someone assisted the doctor by sprinkling the anaesthetic on gauze held over the patient's nose and mouth. Many operations took place on the kitchen table at the farm.

Pneumonia was treated with antiphlogestine and other poultices, infections treated with hot foments, and boils and bites with Bates salve. It was during Dr Boucaut's time that antibiotics were introduced to the district, firstly sulphur drugs, then the penicillin - and a new era of medicine began.

Dr Boucaut during the early days of the war was a captain in the Army, and later transferred to the RAAF as a flight lieutenant, and became medical officer at the Mallala Air Force station. He left Mallala in 1948.