Robert T. Paton
Robert Thomson Paton (16 March 1856 – 17 February 1929) was a medical doctor who served as Director-General of Public Health for New South Wales from 1913 to 1921. Biography. Paton was born at historic Portobello Castle, Edinburgh, a son of John Govan Stewart Paton, carver and gilder, and his wife Catherine Paton, née Thomson. The family claimed descent from Captain John Paton, a martyr to the Covenanter cause, and closely related to the Paton family of Alloa, cotton spinners, later Paton & Baldwins Ltd. He completed one year of a medical course at the Edinburgh University before  in 1876 leaving for Australia, where he worked as a doctor's assistant in Bathurst and Wallsend and sailed extensively through the South Sea Islands in a yacht which he part-owned. In 1884 he returned to Edinburgh and completed the course, becoming an FRCS and LRCS. He returned to Australia and entered into general practice, then joined the public service as a medical officer at Trial Bay prison. Subsequent appointments include: Paton and Dr J. B. Nash MLC were sent to Wollongong hospital by special train immediately after the Mount Kembla coalmine disaster of July 1902 to help treat  miners suffering from "afterdamp" (a carbon monoxide mixture) inhalation, the cause of most of the 93 deaths. He was awarded the CMG in 1922. His remains were ashed at Rookwood Crematorium and presumably disposed of "in the most economic manner possible" as directed in his will. Family. Paton married Janet Tritschler (born 1857) in Leytonstone, Essex, on 1 July 1886. Their children included: They had a home on O'Sullivan Road, Rose Bay, in 1928; Wentworth Street, Point Piper in 1929.