Albert Coates ( surgeon ) Sir Albert Ernest Coates OBE , FRCS ( 1895 – 1977 ) was an Australian surgeon and soldier . He served as a medical orderly in World War I serving on Gallipoli , and as a senior surgeon for the Australian Army Medical Corps in World War II in Malaya . He was captured by the Japan ese and during his time as a POW , worked as a surgeon for the many Allied POWs working to build the Burma - Thailand Railway . Early life . Coates was born in Mount Pleasant , a suburb of Ballarat , Victoria in Australia . Aged 11 years , he left school and went to work as a butcher and an apprentice bookbinder . First World War service . In 1914 Coates enlisted in the 7th Battalion as a medical orderly and the following year served on Gallipoli . Coates was one of the last to leave the peninsula on the night of 19 / 20 December 1915 . His battalion was then transferred to France in March 1916 and fought in the battle of the Somme . His skill as a linguist came to the attention of his superiors and in February 1917 he was attached to the intelligence staff , I Anzac Corps . Sir John Monash and British authorities recognized his ability and , at the end of the war , he was invited to apply for a commission in the British Army . Coates preferred , however , to go home to Australia where he found employment in the office of the Commonwealth censor in Melbourne . Between The Wars . After the war and on his return to Australia Coates worked nights as a postal worker to support himself through medical school . In 1925 Coates became a resident at ( Royal ) Melbourne Hospital . He worked with Professor Richard Berry in the university ' s department of anatomy , first as a Stewart lecturer ( 1925 – 26 ) and next as acting - professor ( 1927 ) . Back at ( Royal ) Melbourne Hospital , he was appointed honorary surgeon to out - patients in 1927 and to in - patients in 1935 . Following his first wife ' s death he visited surgical centres in Britain , Europe and North America ; shortly after his return he was asked to establish the neurosurgical unit at the R . M . H . From 1936 to 1940 he was part - time lecturer in surgical anatomy at the University of Melbourne . Coates remained active in the military and by the outbreak of war was a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps . Second World War and capture in Sumatra . Appointed lieutenant colonel , Australian Army Medical Corps , on 1 January 1941 , Coates joined the Australian Imperial Force next day aged 46 . He was posted to the 2nd / 10th Australian General Hospital and stationed at Malacca , Malaya . After the Japanese invaded on 8 December , the 2nd / 10th A . G . H . fell back to Singapore ; Coates was ordered to join a party which sailed on 13 February 1942 for Java , Netherlands East Indies . The convoy was bombed and the survivors reached Tembilahan , Sumatra , where Coates saved many lives with his surgical skill . He made himself responsible for treating all British casualties , and felt duty - bound to stay with them , though he could have left on several occasions . On 28 February he arrived at Padang which was occupied by the Japanese three weeks later and Coates became a prisoner of war . POW Burma - Thailand Railway . In May 1942 the Japanese moved Coates to Burma . At the Kilo - 30 and Kilo - 55 camps on the Burma - Thailand Railway he cared for hundreds of prisoners of war under deplorable conditions . Coates subsequently described his medical practice at Kilo - 55 to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East : in a bamboo lean - to , with his only instruments a knife , two pairs of artery forceps and a saw ( used by the camp butchers and carpenters ) , his daily work consisted of ' segregating the sick from the very sick . . . curetting seventy or eighty ulcers during the morning . . . and , in the afternoon , proceeding to amputate nine or ten legs ' . In December 1943 the Japanese sent Coates to Thailand . There , from March 1944 , he was chief medical officer of a prisoner - of - war hospital ( 10 , 000 beds ) at Nakhon Pathom ( Nakompaton ) . Through ' his initiative , resource and enthusiasm he was responsible for many improvisations which provided artificial limbs , transfusions and surgical appliances ' . ( Sir ) Edward Dunlop recalled that Coates ' s ' short , upright figure with a ghost of a swagger , a Burma cheroot clamped in his mouth , and his staccato flow of kindly , earthly wisdom became the object of hero - worship and inspiration ' . With the cessation of hostilities , Coates returned to Melbourne in October 1945 , transferred to the Reserve of Officers on 6 December and was appointed O . B . E . in 1946 . Coates was a key witness at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in ‘ 46 , was awarded an OBE in ’ 47 , was an RSL delegate at the signing of the Peace Treaty in the USA in ’ 51 , and was knighted by the Queen in ’ 55 . Career . In between the wars , Coates studied surgery and helped to establish the Neurosurgical Society of Australia . He returned to surgical work following World War Two later became Senior Surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Stewart Lecturer in Surgery at the University of Melbourne . He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons ( FRCS ) . Awards and recognition . Coates was made an Officer of the British Empire ( Military ) in 1946 for " distinguished service in the field " . He was knighted in 1955 and in 1981 was made a Member of the British Empire ( Civil ) for his " services to the handicapped and veterans " . A statue in honour of Sir Albert Ernest Coates is located in the main street of his home town of Ballarat . On 8 September 2006 the University of Ballarat renamed its student union building the Albert Coates Complex . The Sir Albert Coates Oration is an annual event at the University of Ballarat . The following speeches have been given . 2006 - Professor Kwong Lee Dow , former Vice - Chancellor pro tem , " ‘ Contrasting Education in the Time of Albert Coates with Education Today ’ " .