Errol Solomon Meyers

Professor Errol Solomon Meyers (9 August 1890 – 11 February 1956) was an Australian doctor and one of the founding fathers of the University of Queensland School of Medicine in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He was a leader in medical and dental education in Queensland. Meyers also served with distinction during World War I.

Early life Errol Solomon Meyers was born in South Brisbane on 9 August 1890, the son of Ernest Ralph Meyers, a dentist, who migrated from Liverpool, England, and practiced for a time in Brisbane. His mother was Savine Lenneberg, whose father, a native of Prussia, ran the Shakespeare Hotel in George Street. Errol's father left the family to live in Western Australia, leaving his wife to raise their two young sons. She became the manageress of the Grand Hotel and later the Pacific Hotel at Southport.

Meyers attended the Southport State School and then the Brisbane Grammar School. As he wished to study medicine the family moved to Sydney where he trained at Sydney University. While there Errol was a member of the Sydney University Scouts for five years. This unit was raised in 1900 as part of the Colonial New South Wales Defence Force. During World War I over 60% of the Scouts enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force.

Errol graduated with a medical degree in 1914. He worked at the Sydney Hospital as a house physician, resident pathologist and resident radiographer, before returning to Brisbane in 1915 and becoming the resident medical officer at the Brisbane General Hospital. Meyers never received the D.S.O. or an O.B.E. After the war he stayed in England and undertook postgraduate training at the Seamen's Hospital in Greenwich, London, returning to Australia in August 1919.

Legacy After his death, the ES Meyers Memorial Lecture was inaugurated in 1957 by the University of Queensland Medical Society (UQMS) to honour his role in establishing medical education in Queensland. The Lecture has since grown into a celebrated tradition in Australian medical circles.

Meyers’ three sons all became doctors.