Meaningful curiosity

To travel hopefully. An autobiography.Charles Bridges-Webb. Melbourne: Sid Harta Publishers, 2005 (v + 470 pp). ISBN 1 921030 26 7.

Charles Bridges-Webb (CB-W) had two professional lives. He was a country GP in Traralgon from 1960 to 1975 and then Foundation Professor of Community Medicine at Sydney University from 1975 to 1994. Active in the research and disease classification committees of the RACGP and the World Organization of Colleges of General Practice, he has had a major influence on Australian general practice research and education.

His autobiography traces the influences through which his natural curiosity became organised. A family tradition of keeping a personal journal began with his paternal great-grandfather, the architect of the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne. His maternal grandfather, a farmer dependent on rural finance and weather conditions, impressed upon him the importance of keeping meticulous records. As a medical student and young doctor, his original questions aroused the nurturing instinct of teachers, such as professors Sydney Rubbo and Basil Hetzel and the physician, John Bolton. His descriptions of the development of his research interests, projects and collaborations should be of interest to budding GP researchers.

CB-W describes his simple philosophy of life based on travelling quietly but hopefully towards ideals that he knows he will probably never reach. So his disappointments are understated and he ignores the contemporaneous political controversies of Sydney University and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. He considers that “the important parts of life are dependent on the little matters”. There is much in this book on family, children, travel, churches, acting, cricket and gardening. All is shared with his “can do” wife and soulmate Anne. They are a package where their friends and acquaintances always get two for the price of one.

Like most doctors, CB-W tells some good medical tales. My favourite is when he was asked to do a house call to an elderly lady whose son reported that she had had “a bit of a shock”. On arriving at her house he discovered that it had been hit by lightning.

This is an honest autobiography. It avoids the pitfalls of self-aggrandisement and self-pity. CB-W has many friends. His autobiography enables us to know him better.

Max KamienEmeritus Professor of General Practice, University of Western Australian, Perth, WA