GRAHAM, Sir James (1856-1913)

physician and public man

son of Thomas Graham of Edinburgh, was born on 29 July 1856. He graduated M.A. at Edinburgh university in 1879 and M.B. and C.M. in 1882. He went to Sydney in 1884 but returned to Europe and studied at Berlin, Vienna and Paris. He obtained the M.D. degree of Edinburgh University and a gold medal for his thesis on "Hydatid Disease in its Clinical Aspects". Returning to Sydney he was appointed superintendent of the Royal Prince Alfred hospital which, largely by his influence, became an excellent training-ground for the medical profession. From 1897 he was lecturer in midwifery at the university of Sydney and held this position until 1912. He was founder of the Surgical Appliances Aid Society, the Women's Hospital, the Trained Nurses' Association, and was the first president of the New South Wales Dental Board.

In spite of these activities Graham found time to do much public work. He was elected a member of the legislative assembly for Belmore in 1894 and held the seat until 1901. In 1898 he became a member of the Sydney city council and took a prominent part in a successful reform movement. His professional knowledge was also of great use during the plague scare in 1900. He was mayor of Sydney in 1901 during the visit of the Duke of York and was knighted. He was again elected to the legislative assembly in 1907 but lost his seat at the 1910 election. He was for several years vice-president of the Liberal Association. He died at Sydney on 8 March 1913. He married in 1890 Fanny, daughter of the Rev. G. W. Millard, who survived him with a son.

Graham was an able man of broad sympathies and high ideals. His death at a comparatively early age was a loss to the public life of his state.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 March 1913; The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 10 March 1913; The British Medical Journal, 15 March 1913; The Lancet, 17 May 1913; Who's Who, 1913; Burke's Peerage, etc., 1913.