Guide to the Papers of Timothy George Calvert Murrell, 1951-2000

Summary

Collection number:

MS 9304

Creator:

Timothy George Calvert Murrell and Patricia Murrell

Extent:

20.1 metres and (134 ms boxes + 3 sound/av carriers)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Timothy George Calvert Murrell, National Library of Australia, MS 9304, [series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference (box 127 closed until 2060)

Background

Content Summary:

The collection spans Murrell's entire career from the 1960s when he was as a medical officer and researcher in Papua New Guinea, until 1996, when his official relationship with the University of Adelaide's Faculty of Medicine ended. Murrell's early experiences, both as a student under the notable 'human ecologist' Clifford Jungfer, and as a patient suffering from poliomyelitis, were doubtless formative, and contributed to his view of general practice. Unfortunately, there is little direct evidence of these early experiences here, only the evidence of later achievement. Apart from the research series on pigbel and other enteric or intestinal infections, the strength of this collection lies in its tracing the development of the various teaching programs and facilities for the University of Adelaide's Department of Community Medicine over three decades, in the development of general practice education, and in related public health research.

Dating from the late 1960s, there is correspondence, notes and readings that reflect Murrell's early interest in general practice and community medicine. From his appointment as Reader (1973) and then commencement of the Department of Community Medicine in 1975, and the elevation of Murrell as its first professor, the papers reflect the approach to medical education and various organisational arrangements in which Murrell was instrumental. These include the establishment of teaching health centres at St Agnes, Ingle Farm and The Parks, the innovation of a Foundation for Multi-disciplinary Education in Community Health managed for a time by Murrell's Unihealth Research and Development Trust, the Family Practice Unit at Highbury, and later the General Practice Teaching Unit at Modbury Hospital.

Murrell's research and teaching philosophy come together in his public health research work, reflected here in the series regarding Sudden Infant Death Syndrome which, in common with the pigbel work, reveals his interest in the mesh between the micro- and macro-environmental medicine. Ecological principles and Murrell's belief in general practice as a venue for meaningful research outcomes are manifested in the progress of later research into fibrocystic disease and breast cancer, Dupuytrens contracture and Multiple Sclerosis. Likewise, the undergraduate and other teaching series illustrate his emphasis on the patient-doctor communication within general practice as a primary factor in achieving successful consultations.

Interestingly, while Murrell maintained long working relationships with colleagues such as John Moss, and collaborations with researchers including P. D. Walker, C. R. B. Blackburn, and Gregor Lawrence (pigbel), D. J. Deller (intestinal motility), and H. R. Winefield (general practice education), it is his connections with institutions that are most apparent in this collection. Research and teaching relied on bonds with organisations such as the Wellcome Research laboratories (UK), the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Mothers and Babies' Health Association, South Australian Health Commission, the Adelaide Children's Hospital, the S.I.D.S. Foundation and others.

Biographical Note:

Timothy Murrell was the foundation professor of Community Medicine, in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Adelaide from 1975. In the following two decades he was involved in setting up and running medical education facilities that placed the general practitioner within the community, and, according to this 'ecological' model, highlighted the qualities and potential of general practice. He developed a divisional trinity of clinical epidemiology, medical sociology and general practice.

Murrell's research and teaching philosophy emanated in part from his formative experiences as a medical student. Born in Adelaide on 8 April 1933, he was educated at the Anglican collegiate school, St Peter's, in Adelaide. He graduated from the University of Adelaidein 1958. While there he spent his voluntary fifth year General Practice elective with Clifford Jungfer, co-founder of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Jungfer practised as a human ecologist, at the community in the Adelaide Hills town of Lobethal. Murrell's other profound experience was during his first year as a medical student. His encounter with the tail end of a polio epidemic of 1950-52 rendered him almost totally paralysed. He recovered fully from this event, though he spent several months ward-bound in the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Northfield.

After a year as an inaugural R.M.O. at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, Murrell served out a bond with the Department of Territories. Between 1960 and 1964, as District Medical Officer at Goroka, Wabag and Kundiawa, he defined the aetiology and epidemiology of pigbel, a gangrenous intestinal disease predominantly affecting children in the Highlands of New Guinea. His survey, case work and reports led to measures that significantly reduced mortality from the effects of the disease. During the late 1970s, World Health Organisation Fellowships in Tehran and Nepal focused attention on pigbel on a wider scale, and in 1978 Murrell was awarded a World Health Organisation Medical Staff Society Medal. A colleague, Gregor Lawrence, described the pathogenesis and control of pigbel by vaccination, and was awarded the Eric Susman Prize by the Royal College of Australian Physicians in 1980.

Murrell returned to Adelaide as a temporary lecturer in medicine at the University of Adelaide, where he wrote up his M.D. thesis on pigbel. In 1967 he went to work at the General Practice Research Unit at Guy's Hospital, London, as the Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellow in Medicine for Australia. Soon after his return Murrell set up the St Agnes Health Centre, based on a concept that had been developed for Thamesmead, an outer suburb of London. As Reader in Community Medicine attached to the Department of Psychiatry at Adelaide University from 1973, Murrell designed and taught subjects in three years across the medical course, introducing community medicine into the undergraduate medical curriculum. His design for the new Department of Community Medicine in the ensuing years was one in which general practice and public health were interrelated. The Family Practice Unit at Highbury, based on his own clinical arrangements, and General Practice Teaching Unit at Modbury Hospital were pioneering centres for undergraduate teaching and research at the Adelaide University, surpassing and complementing general practice education based entirely on preceptorships. The community model advocated by Murrell was similarly reflected in the establishment of teaching health centres at Ingle Farm, The Parks and elsewhere. The Foundation for Multi-disciplinary Education in Community Health was established to provide conjoint education for students from a range of health and social welfare professions.

Murrell was convinced that the general practitioner was an under-utilised player in the world of medical research, and that community-centred general practice provided the opportunity for extending research on a number of frontiers. The idea that a general practitioner should immerse himself or herself in the community shaped Murrell's own research work, including work on the role of sexual activity in male uric acid metabolism, the hormonal response to female breast stimulation, and the influence of poverty on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Ideas on the association of raw farm products with Multiple Sclerosis were generated by his experience serving as medical officer to the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Adelaide for five years. The pathogenesis of Dupuytren's contracture came from observations at Murrell's lawn bowling club. Interest in doctor-patient communication found expression in his teaching, and in later career research into general practitioner-patient communication.

Murrell's long association with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, liaison with government health services, applications to private and government and private organisations are apparent in his reorganisation of teaching at the University of Adelaide, and in his later research work. Notable private service achievements have included presidency of the Australian Association of Academic General Practitioners, 1989-93, the Royal Society for the Blind, 1990-92 and the Centre of Personal Education (COPE) from 1993. Murrell is also a member of the Adelaide Club. In 1992, he was awarded a Visiting Fellowship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and the following year was elected to the Jenner Educational Trust.

References: John Moss, 'Timothy Murrell: the general practitioner as human ecologist', Australian family physician, November 1994.; Timothy G. C. Murrell, 'Publications', volumes 1 and 2, 1996; 'A chronology of unpublished work, 1971-96. (Murrell papers, MS 9304, Series 15); University of Adelaide, Department of Community Medicine, Annual reports.

Provenance:

Timothy Murrell donated the papers to the Library in five instalments between 1996 and 2000.

Arrangement:

The papers were received by the Library in 'working condition': that is to say there was much interfiling of research, administrative and teaching material. In many files, research, teaching and administration are often inextricable. As one would expect, especially in regard to a public health educator such as Murrell, much early research work has been cannibalised. The pattern of re-using drop-files without necessarily reorganising or purging has not lent itself to the creation of an accessible file order based on the order in which the files were found. Where it is clear that the file title reflects the bulk of file content, the title has been retained in quotation marks. In many cases, however, existing file labels were inaccurate. Consequently, many folders are described by content listings, and placed within a series heading according to a 'majority rules' logic. Even so, there are some file-runs, which have been kept intact, such as for the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome material, some of the pigbel and other research subjects. In any event, the researcher would be well advised to review folder descriptions carefully, as a considerable amount of material relevant to more than one area has of necessity been given a single location.

While the content of most series are self-evident, there are two long series (4-5) relating to the Department of Community Medicine that are more complex. The first is administrative, and covers Murrell's lengthy involvement with the Department of Community Medicine at Adelaide University, the development of teaching courses and facilities, research, study leave arrangements and so on. The other, focusing on Murrell's undergraduate teaching, contains largely notes, instructional materials and course information, often re-used and containing a certain amount of research material. Other series are comprised of administrative material, research and teaching together. All series are arranged chronologically, though occasional exceptions occur where the file order within a particular series presents a coherent logic of its own.

The three volumes in series 14 are particularly valuable, representing Murrell's entire body of published work and considerable amount of unpublished material, including papers outlining Murrell's approach to community health teaching.

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn3036530).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Timothy George Calvert Murrell, National Library of Australia, MS 9304, [series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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