Australian Dictionary of Biography

John Francis McCaffrey, no date

Supplied by the author

John Francis McCaffrey (1933–2000), surgeon and oncologist, was born on 31 January 1933 in Melbourne, second child of Victorian-born parents John Joseph McCaffrey, sports field curator, and his wife Irene Frances, née Barnard. After attending De La Salle College, Malvern (1943–46), John moved to Queensland and continued his schooling at St Laurence’s College, South Brisbane (1947–50), where the ‘breadth and depth of [his] talent immediately became apparent’ (Queensland Cancer Fund News 2000), and he finished as dux, school captain, and captain of the first XI cricket and first XIII rugby league teams. He graduated from the University of Queensland (MB, BS, 1956; MS, 1960) with first-class honours and was top of his year, receiving the university medal for outstanding merit, and other awards, including the William Nathaniel Robertson medal and Kenneth Wilson prize.

In 1957 McCaffrey became a resident medical officer at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, South Brisbane, where he met Denise Carmel Moroney, a physiotherapist; they were married on 24 May 1958 at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Greenslopes. The next year he was appointed as a registrar in surgery at the (Royal) Brisbane Hospital (RBH), Herston. In 1961 he was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He held a Nuffield travelling fellowship for just over twelve months from late 1962 in the University of Glasgow’s department of surgery, qualifying as a fellow (1963) of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Returning to Brisbane and the University of Queensland’s department of surgery, McCaffrey was appointed as an acting senior lecturer, at the RBH, in December 1963 (confirmed 1964); his appointment was transferred in 1966 to Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba. In 1970 he moved to the Repatriation General Hospital, Greenslopes, as a reader, and in 1981 back to the RBH as professor and head of the department. He was appointed as Mayne professor of surgery in 1983. Frustrated by funding and staffing problems impeding progress in ‘furthering the department’s academic development’ (Siu 2003, 114), he resigned from the university in 1989. He then held the post of medical director of the Moran hospital project (later John Flynn Private Hospital) on the Gold Coast and was a visiting surgeon at the Gold Coast Hospital.

McCaffrey was renowned for his unpaid work for the Queensland Cancer Fund, the Australian Cancer Society (Cancer Council Australia from 2000), the National Breast Study Committee, and the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia. His outstanding contribution to the QCF extended over a period of almost twenty years ‘without any thought of personal reward’ (Queensland Cancer Fund News 2000). To staff and volunteers, he was universally known as ‘Prof’ and ‘was a familiar and well-loved figure’ (Queensland Cancer Fund News 2000). He joined the fund’s medical and scientific advisory committee in 1982 and chaired it from 1986 until his death. In this role, he demonstrated strong leadership in the demanding task of coordinating and formulating assessment procedures for the QCF’s research grant application program. He also assisted in overseeing the transfer of the State Cancer Registry from the Department of Health to the QCF and in setting up the large, randomised trial of population screening for melanoma that began in Queensland in 2000.

Notably innovative, McCaffrey founded the mammographic breast-screening clinic at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, which opened in 1985 as the first such public service in Australia. Its operating principles were incorporated in an Australia-wide pilot study on which the BreastScreen Australia program was eventually based. In addition, he was prominent in developing ultrasound as a clinical tool, becoming a founding member (1970) and president (1982–83) of the Australian Society of Ultrasound in Medicine. His more than one hundred scientific journal articles and book chapters and several films and videos advanced surgical oncological knowledge immensely. He gained a significant international reputation, and, as a visiting professor or guest lecturer, was invited to leading cancer institutes in the United States of America, Canada, and Britain.

McCaffrey was over six feet (183 cm) tall and had a commanding presence. Compassionate and good humoured, he was ever ready to offer helpful and friendly advice to his colleagues and junior doctors. In keeping with his humanitarianism, he frequently visited poorer countries to assist surgeons and lecture in surgery and oncology. He was a brilliant man, yet humble and self-effacing, with a strong belief in God. The altruism that characterised his life and work made an enduring impression on his colleagues. For relaxation, he played golf and was a keen gardener and an avid follower of cricket; electronics was another interest.

In 1999 McCaffrey’s wife died of a gall bladder malignancy. Having treated many grateful cancer patients during his long and distinguished career, he ironically also succumbed to cancer, on 4 November 2000 in the Mater Hospital. He was buried in Mount Gravatt cemetery. His children Anne-Marie, Elizabeth, Christopher, and Sean survived him; Elizabeth followed in his footsteps as a medical oncologist.