Joyce Debenham Seager MBE born Joyce Debenham Tearne known as Joy Seager (20 September 1899 – 7 September 1991) was a British-born physician, best known for being the only medical practitioner on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island (, ) is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Poi ...

, Australia from 1925. She wrote her biography and it became a TV mini-series.

Life

Seager was born in England's

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

, in

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...

, West Midlands. She was the last of three children born to Maude Mary (born Lee) and her husband Theodore Stephen Tearne. The family emigrated to Australia in 1907. Her father taught music and in 1909 he became the head of the New South Wales Department of Public Instruction music department. She went to Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar and

Sydney Girls' High School Sydney Girls High School (abbreviated as SGHS or Sydney Girls) is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school located at Moore Park, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1883 and operated b ...

. Seager went on to graduate in medicine in 1924 from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. She was briefly employed in hospitals but at the beginning of 1925 she became the only doctor, dentist and pharmacist on

off the coast of South Australia. She married a grazier who had been a Major and at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

in her first year. She had no vehicle or phone and journeys were made on horseback over dirt tracks. She established a temporary hospital and in 1930 a permanent one was built. In May 1944 she took up a new position as (the only) doctor in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

and in the following year her husband had a new farm nearby. She handled an outbreak of diphtheria and made early use of penicillin. In 1950 they made their final move to Mount Pleasant. In 1965 she accompanied her husband as he travelled back with other veterans to Gallipoli after 50 years. On board, some of the occupants became ill and Seager cared for them, buying drugs and supplies. In 1966 she was awarded an MBE. Her first husband died in 1976 and in the following year she married Stanley Charles Henniker who was also a grazier. In 1980 she published her biography as ''Kangaroo Island Doctor''. The book was made into an Australian TV series, Shadows of the Heart, that was filmed on Kangaroo Island. The series was nominated in the Best Miniseries or Telefeature category in the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards, and

Josephine Byrnes Josephine Byrnes (born 1966) is an Australian actress best known for her work in television, including a lead role in '' Brides of Christ'' for which she won a Logie Award The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially as The Logies) is an an ...

was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama. Seager died in Mount Pleasant in 1991.

References

External links

Biography at ADB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seager, Joy 1899 births 1991 deaths People from Edgbaston 20th-century English medical doctors 20th-century English women medical doctors Sydney Medical School alumni Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Sydney Girls High School