Dr.  John Justin (Jack) Smyth was one of the outstanding surgeons in the Hunter region after WW2 Jack was born in Sydney in 1918, and his father died the following year, so he was brought up by his mother and his grandparents. The family struggled financially, but he obtained an excellent education in the Marist Brothers schools, and completed his Leaving Certificate aged 15! Not sure what he wanted to do, he initially worked as a clerk in the Dept of Health, began reading medical books, and thanks to his Grandmother, was able to begin Medicine at Sydney University in 1935and have his fees paid..

He had a brilliant career, was a prosector in anatomy, graduated with first class honours and the Gold Medal, in 1941, worked in the Professorial Unit at Royal Prince Alfred under the legendary Sir Harold, and Professor Lambie-then spent 1942- 1946 in the AIF, seeing active service overseas, and then came to Royal Newcastle Hospital and trained in Surgery, acquiring his MS and FRACS in the late 1940S.

He was the first salaried Staff Surgeon in Australia, and was one of the team of talented young consultants who were recruited by Dr. Chris Mc Caffrey to build his dream hospital modelled on the US Johns Hopkins model. Jack Smyth was the gifted clinician who contributed more than anyone else to turning the dream into a reality-he was respected by everyone, even by those who were opposed to the then controversial staff specialist system.

He was a brilliant teacher, set himself extremely high standards, was an indefatigueable worker, a passionate advocate of the RNH staffing system, the instigator of the modern system of auditing in hospitals, and the driving force behind. The world class surgical training system at RNH This recording reveals for the first time many of the trials and tribulations of those early years, much of the background of the development of the medical school, and a very objective insight into many of the medical controversies of that era.

At the time this recording was made, [1991] he was still teaching students, and passing on to them snippets of the wisdom he had accumulated over those years in both salaried and private practice. He died in 1999.