Alfred Victor Millard Anderson (1864-1932) was born on 2 October 1864, the son of Alfred Anderson of Parkville. He won a scholarship to Wesley College, where he showed himself to be gifted scholar, winning the Argus prize and the Powell scholarship. His prize-winning continued at the University of Melbourne where he graduated MB BS in 1886 and took the higher degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1892.
After a year as Resident Medical Officer at the Melbourne Hospital he became House Physician at the Alfred Hospital for the next six years before entering private practice in Greville Street, Prahran. He was appointed an Honorary Physician to Outpatients in 1900 and to Inpatients in 1902. He remained in that position until retirement in 1928.
Until 1912 the chairmanship of Alfred Hospital Medical staff had been a permanent appointment. In 1912 AVM Anderson was elected chairman. Thereafter an annual election took place and it was not customary for the same man to be re-elected in consecutive years. There was some discussion on whether or not the selected medical man could be regarded as the representative of the opinion of the honorary medical staff. When AVM Anderson was nominated onto the board by the staff in 1913 it was understood that this would be so.
Anderson was a member of the British Medical Association (Victorian branch) Council from 1910 until the year of his death in 1932; president in 1916; convenor of the ethics committee from 1918 to 1930 and first chairman of the Melbourne Permanent Postgraduate Committee. He was also a member of the council of the Medical Defence Association.
His application to serve abroad during World War One was rejected as “medically unfit”, but he gave a lot of time to the Defence Department, especially during the time of a meningitis epidemic.
He married but had no children; his wife died in 1930 and he died on 2 August 1932.
Last updated 13 March 2025.
Sources: Obituary, Med. ]. Aust. (1932), 11, pp. 525-27; Mitchell, A.M., “Hospital South of the Yarra”.