Vera Scantlebury Brown

Vera Scantlebury Brown OBE MBBS MD (7 August 1889 – 14 July 1946) was an Australian medical practitioner and pediatrician in Victoria, Australia.

Early life and education Vera Scantlebury was born in Linton, Victoria, 7 August 1889. Her parents were George James and Catherine Millington (née Baynes) Scantlebury. She was educated at Toorak College before entering medical school at the University of Melbourne. She graduated Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in 1914. before leaving for England in 1917 to join the Royal Army Medical Corps where she reached the rank of Lieutenant, and was attached to the Endell Street Military Hospital as an assistant surgeon to Louisa Garrett Anderson. she was sent by the Victorian Government to conduct a survey of the welfare of women and children in New Zealand and Victoria. Scantlebury Brown and Main's report led to the establishment of the Infant Welfare Division in the Department of Public Health.

In 1937, following Scantlebury Brown report on infant welfare for the National Health and Research Council, the Commonwealth Government allocated £100,000 for the benefit of pre-school children, from the Coronation Commemoration Grant. In 1938 the Australian Association of Pre-School Child Development was established, together with the Lady Gowrie Child Centres. The preventive work carried out at these centres in all states was largely the result of Dr. Scantlebury Brown's efforts. She was posthumously inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

Golden Plains Shire commemorated Scantlebury Brown by commissioning a life-sized sculpture of her to be housed on the Avenue of Honour in her birth town of Linton, Victoria.

Selected works Brown, Vera Scantlebury, Pre-school child: "model exhibit" of sample toys and occupations for children of different ages up to 5 years of age, H.E. Daw, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1943 Brown, V. S. & Kate Campbell, A guide to the care of the young child, infant and pre-school ages: for students of infant welfare, Dept. of Health, Division of Maternal, Infant and Pre-School Welfare, Melbourne, 1947, 266 pages