Eric and Winifred Bateson obituary

• MB ChB Sheffield, 1953
• DMRD London, 1959
• FFR London, 1961
• MD Sheffield, 1963
• FRANZCR, 1970

Dr Eric M Bateson and Mrs Winifred E Bateson were incredibly interesting individuals who forged amazing lives, despite many financial hardships experienced by those who lived through the Great Depression and WWII.

Winifred’s family had moved from Sheffield to the US during the depression - however, after Winifred was born, they returned to Sheffield so that her father, a steel manufacturer, could assist with employment in the city. He went on to set up his own steelworks, Welco. During her childhood in Sheffield, Winifred experienced the bombings of WWII and tragically lost her best friend in a bombing raid.

Despite the difficulties she faced in her childhood, Winifred’s youth was also filled with the adventure of travel. At just 17, in an era when young women rarely travelled alone, Winifred saved to go to America to visit friends in New Jersey. In her early 20s during her university years, she decided to broaden her horizons further by travelling through Spain and then Europe. 

Eric was an incredibly intelligent child from an early age. He was the first student from the local primary school to win a scholarship to Baines Grammar School, Poulton-Le-Fylde. He was then the first student from the school to be awarded a State Scholarship to study Medicine at Sheffield, where he also became the University's first Medical postgraduate student to be awarded a Doctorate in Medicine after completing his MD by Thesis in 1963.

Finances were always very tight throughout his educational endeavours. Without the assistance of various scholarships throughout his school years and into his medical training, Dr Bateson would have not been able to pursue his career in medicine. Even with this assistance, Eric’s scholarship funding did not cover his full University medical training costs, meaning he needed to work additional hospital practical training shifts in order to have a bed and a hot meal each day. 

While studying at Sheffield, Eric met his future wife, Winifred Welch, who was studying for a BA in Arts & Education. The couple married after their studies, while Eric was in the RAF, and they had two children.

After leaving the RAF, Dr Bateson decided to specialise in Medical Radiology, which required undertaking an unpaid traineeship at registrar level through Sheffield Hospital while studying for his DMRD. In order to finance his DMRD traineeship, Eric worked in many different medical roles, including as a dental anaesthetist, shifts with the mobile blood transfusion service, and as a GP at several practices.

After this, he worked as a senior registrar in the Sheffield and Nottingham Hospitals while studying for his qualification as a Specialist Radiologist (FFR), which he completed in 1961. At the same time, he researched material for his MD by Thesis. It was through the encouragement and influence of Dr Sir Thomas Lodge at Sheffield that Dr Bateson undertook his MD studies.

Working overseas

Eric and Winifred went on to travel and to live in many places. In 1964 they left the UK permanently, enabling Eric to take up an appointment as Consultant Radiologist and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Medicine at the University Hospital of the West Indies on the distant shores of Jamaica.

This interesting position allowed him to study a plethora of relatively unknown tropical diseases, and stoked Eric’s passion for teaching and research, which continued for the remainder of his working life. (As you can imagine, working in a developing country with minimal facilities necessitated much ingenuity in treatment!)

Due to the unstable political climate that developed in the West Indies during the late 1960s, Dr Bateson and his family moved to Perth, Western Australia, where he worked as a Consultant Radiologist in both hospital and private practices. However, keen to further pursue his interest in tropical medicine, in 1973 Dr Bateson then moved with his family to Australia's Northern Territory (NT), taking up the position of Senior Specialist Radiologist in Charge at the Darwin Hospital.

Conditions in Darwin were somewhat primitive at that time; Dr Bateson found himself in charge of the only X-ray facility in the entire greater Darwin area, serving a population of around 40,000 people. He went on to develop a fully comprehensive radiological service to the NT, including services to surrounding areas such as Gove and Katherine. This involved developing and providing a complete range of specialised procedures, as well as weekly clinical radiological meetings and lectures to Medical, Nursing and Radiography staff.

Challenges and triumphs

Progress was interrupted for a time as he faced another great challenge: Cyclone Tracy hit on Christmas day, 1974. The tropical storm devastated most of Darwin including the hospital, with only one ward left relatively intact. Their two children and visiting grandparents from the UK were evacuated in RAAF Hercules aeroplanes to stay with friends in Perth.

Dr Bateson and Winifred remained to assist with rebuilding the devastated hospital services, living under extremely difficult circumstances in their damaged home with no roof, power, running water, or easy means of communication with their children for over 6 months after the cyclone. It was almost 12 months before the army allowed their children to return to Darwin to re-establish some form of normal family life.

Following the gradual recovery from the devastation, Dr Bateson continued to further develop medical and radiological services to the NT. This included development and establishment of the area's first school of radiography, in conjunction with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in 1976. His youngest daughter, who at the time was a cadet radiographer, volunteered as a model for Dr Bateson’s handbook on radiography.

Dr Bateson also instigated the formation of the NT branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA). In 1980, this was followed up by the planning and operation of a new 12-room radiological department, which included CT and MRI facilities, in the new Casuarina Hospital (later renamed the Royal Darwin Hospital). This was built 14km away in Casuarina, to better accommodate the area's ever-growing population.

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There are a limited number of radiologists who enjoy world-wide reputations because of their published work. Amongst these, there are even fewer whose published work spans wide fields of observation and does not mainly exploit a particular interest...this is Eric Bateson’s contribution to radiology.”

Dr Trevor Apsimon, past president of the RANZCR, and Dr Harry Hillier

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His contributions to radiology services in the NT have been documented in the book Australian Radiology: a History. He was also the recipient of a plaque presented by the NT chief minister, commemorating his services to the area, and was inducted into the hospital Hall of Fame for his dedication to medical services.

Throughout this period, Dr Bateson continued with his research, concentrating on the medical problems specific to the indigenous community. He authored over 100 publications in medical journals such as the British Journal of Radiology and Australasian Radiology, with some recently republished in electronic form. Research during this period was a very slow and laborious process, as personal computers were yet to become commonplace, and the establishment of the early internet was still well over a decade away!

By 1985, looking for a more amenable climatic change, Dr Bateson had accepted a position as Visiting Radiologist to the Maryborough Base Hospital in Queensland, which also included providing services to Hervey Bay and Gympie hospitals.

During their many moves across seas, Winifred maintained a plethora of interests and talents. Notably, she was a wonderful linguist, and was fluent in many languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Indonesian, Japanese, and German. She was also incredibly skilled in artistic crafts such as pottery, spinning, and rug and basket weaving.

Her creative pursuits also extended to the kitchen, where both she and Eric enjoyed cooking dishes from all over the world. Winifred had a passion for opera and attended live concerts regularly, and also retained a soft spot for her "four-legged children”, family dogs Maggie and Stella. Stella was especially adored, as she was a stray that took a shine to Winifred when she was out walking. 

Throughout his busy life, Eric found some time for relaxation through his own love of classical and indigenous music, collecting covers of the British West Indies, sea swimming, nature and gardening.

Dr Bateson continued to provide his services to Queensland Health into the 1980s where, after numerous bouts of illness, he passed away in 2011 following a traumatic battle with pancreatic cancer. After a series of difficult health conditions of her own, Winifred Bateson passed away in 2023.

The University is so grateful for Eric and Winifred’s generosity. Their kind gift of an endowed bursary will ensure that future generations of medical students will be given a helping hand for years to come, and that Dr Bateson's legacy will always be associated with his fondly remembered time at Sheffield.