Keith Mortimer Higlett

 

Keith Mortimer Higlett was born in Pittsworth, Queensland, on 28 November 1921. He was the youngest of the three sons of Arthur Sinclair Higlett and Grace Isobel Higlett. He attended the Brisbane Boys’ College and studied medicine at Queensland University, where he graduated in 1945. In 1947, he was appointed as general practitioner at Rockhampton Base Hospital, where he met his wife Alma, who was a nurse there. They married in Rockhampton and then moved to Yeppoon, where Keith was the medical superintendent at the Yeppoon Hospital and worked in his private practice. He later returned to Rockhampton to continue his work in private practice. While in Rockhampton, he gave lectures to the Queensland Ambulance Service and taught anatomy and medicine to the nurses at the Mater Private Hospital.

In 1971, following his interest in tropical diseases, he applied to the Australian Government to work in Papua New Guinea. He was appointed medical superintendent of ANGAU General Hospital in Lae for 2 years, and then spent another 9 years working at Bulolo, in the Morobe Province. Alma died at ANGAU General Hospital in 1978. He later returned to Brisbane, where he worked at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital.

Keith loved tennis, squash, golf, football and lawn bowls. He died on 19 November 2016. He was a quiet, gentle, peaceful, caring man, a good listener and a gentleman, and is survived by his children Lesley, Rick, Michel and Robert.