Major-General Sir Frank Kingsley Norris CB KBE DSO KStJ ED QHP
Fifth Commissioner of St John Victoria District, 1956-1959
Kingsley Norris was a medical student at the start of WW I, when he enlisted as a trooper in the Light Horse Field Ambulance. After service in the Middle East he was sent back to Australia to complete his medical education. He became Medical Superintendent of the Children’s Hospital, then a specialist paediatrician in private practice and Honorary Paediatrician to the Alfred Hospital. He became Lt-Colonel commanding 2nd Light Horse Field Ambulance until the outbreak of WW II when he was appointed Assistant Director of Army Medical Services in the Middle East. After that war he became Director-General, a post he held during the Korean War. He founded the Army School of Health.
As well as his military and medical roles, in civilian life he was an office-bearer in many organisations including British Medical Association Victorian Branch, the Australian Red Cross Society, the Medical Board of Victoria, the Good Neighbour Council of Victoria, The College of Nursing and the St John Ambulance Brigade. He became Commissioner when Sir William Johnston was promoted to National Headquarters and he followed Sir William in becoming Chief Surgeon in 1959 and Chief Commissioner in 1962. He was invested as a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John in 1959. Other Honours included Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1952 and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1957. He died in 1984.
