An Unsung Architect of Medical Administration: Life and Legacy of Dr. J.H.L Cumpston, First Director General of Health of the Commonwealth of Australia

Dr John Howard Lidgett Cumpston is a Medical Administrator whose meticulous work in the field of Public Health, Epidemiology and Administration made him a pioneer in Australian Public Health Field. As the Maiden Director General of the Federal Health Service of the Commonwealth of Australia he was fortunate enough to build the pillars of an enduring system with bureaucratic bricks his mastery had crafted. He navigated the country through a rampant pandemic of influenza in 1918-19 and a quarantine crisis while causing Improvements in school health, Tuberculosis and Miners Health, Diet, Housing and Eugenics at an era as early as 1930’s.This Herculean Contribution gave birth to the national blue print for federal health in the Commonwealth of Australia in the early 1930s.