I spent the year 1939 as a resident medical officer at the Adelaide Hospital, my first experience of living away from home for a prolonged period. During this period I spent four months as resident physician for Dr S. R. (Ginger) Burston, who was later to become Director-General of Medical Services for the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and as surgical clerk for Mr (later Sir) Ivan Jose. Although I enjoyed this work, I never intended to practice medicine; I wanted to do research. Hugo Gray had written to me early in 1939, suggesting that I should come to the United Kingdom and get a job in anatomy: ‘With its two big lines, human evolution and experimental anatomy, and its temporary dearth of good men, it offers better scope than anything else in medical science.’

By this time, Wood Jones had left Melbourne for Manchester and, in a long letter in April 1939, he told me that anatomy in Britain was at a low ebb. He suggested that I should investigate the possibility of working with Dr E. Weston Hurst, the Director of the newly-established Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science at the Adelaide Hospital. I explored this possibility, and applied for a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) to enable me to undertake research on viruses with him. During the discussions he told me that the two leading virologists in the English-speaking world were C. H. Andrewes, of the National Institute for Medical Research in London, and F. M. Burnet, who, he said, had everything in high degree, especially originality. Much later, I learned that my application to NH&MRC had been unsuccessful. But, on 3 September, 1939, Australia declared war on Germany and plans for the future, for all who had been students in my year, were scrapped.