Leo Joseph Doyle, Master Surgeon died in Melbourne’s Mercy Hospital - the same hospital in which he performed surgery many times. So ended the brilliant career of a man described by Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor as the greatest technical surgeon he had ever seen. In all likelihood, Australian surgery will never see the likes of Leo, a virtuoso surgeon, again.
A dux of the College in 1906, Leo graduated from Melbourne University’s Medical School in 1913 with first class honours in surgery and second class honours in medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology.
As a leading Consultant Surgeon at Melbourne’s St. Vincent’s Hospital, Leo’s surgery, by all accounts, knew no bounds.
In describing Leo’s life, the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery noted; “He was, arguably, Australia’s first surgical oncologist. No procedure was deemed too complicating or demanding”.
Peer Year 1906
Inducted 2013