Great practitioners of the day.
“I am 80 years old, lived in Rutherford and had two ops in Maitland Hospital – for appendicitis and tonsillitis back in the 1940s. My doctors were Doctors Galbraith and Solling who were part of the medical staff in those days. ”
“Great practitioners of the day! I worked with Dr Galbraith in the 70s and 80s.”
“Dr Solling took my tonsils out also. It was sometime in the late 50s or early 60s.”
The above exchange was in response to a posting about Maitland Hospital on the Facebook page You know you’re from Maitland when… It triggered a search to find more about these two doctors.
Dr Max Solling
Born Fritz Peter Max Solling in Moree in 1892, Dr Max Solling arrived in Maitland in 1919 to join the practice of Dr Aubrey King located in what was formerly the Alma Hotel and is now, in 2021, Moreish Cafe at 541 High St, West Maitland.
Dr Solling practised in Maitland until 1959. He was an honorary medical officer at Maitland Hospital, and a strong and active supporter of a number of community organisations. He also served in both world wars being awarded the Military Cross during the First World War.
Obituary for Max Solling published in Northern Star (Lismore), 13 July1985
(accessed from Ancestry.com.au)
Dr Thomas Galbraith
Born in England in 1901, Thomas Galbraith gained his medical qualifications at the University of Sydney. By 1930 he was living in Maitland where, in that year, he married Ida Avard. He practiced medicine in the district until the early 1980s.
Krystyna Kurzdlo recalls that, after her family moved from Greta Migrant Camp, her Mum worked as cleaner and cook for Dr Galbraith ‘whom the family remembered fondly’.