Vice-Chancellors
The Hon Sir Arthur Renwick
The Hon Sir Arthur Renwick was a Fellow of Senate from 1877 to 1908, elected by a Convocation of electors to fill a vacancy. He was elected Vice-Chancellor by Senate from 1889 to 1891, 1900 to 1902 and 1906 to 1908.
Profile
(1837-1908)
MD Edin BA Syd
Fellow of Senate: 1877 - 1908
Vice-Chancellor: 1889 - 1891, 1900 - 1902, 1906 - 1908
The Hon Sir Arthur Renwick, physician, philanthropist and politician, was born on 30 May 1837 at Glasgow, Scotland. On 21 July 1841 he reached Sydney with his parents, bounty immigrants, in the Helen.
He was educated at the Redfern Grammar School and, in 1853, he matriculated at the University of Sydney (BA, 1857). He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh (MB, 1860; MD, 1861) and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. After further research courses in Glasgow, London and Paris, in 1862 he returned to Sydney and lived at Redfern where he soon established a growing practice and was skilled in forensic surgery.
Highlights of his medical career included: 1862-77: visiting medical officer for the Benevolent Society of New South Wales; 1866-75: an honorary physician at the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary and medical officer for the Australian Union Benefit Society; 20 August 1873: appointed to the Medical Board and later became president; 1870s: a director and honorary consulting physician at the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary and honorary surgeon to the New South Wales Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, and president in the 1880s; 1878: president of both the Infirmary and the Benevolent Society; 1880s: the first president of the New South Wales branch of the British Medical Association; 1890s: a director of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, a trustee of the Carrington Centennial Hospital for Convalescents and an honorary physician to the Hospital for Sick Children and the Thirlmere Home for Consumptives.
Involvement with the University of Sydney: 1866-75: examiner in medicine of the University of Sydney; 1877: elected to the Senate of the University of Sydney, and remained on the Senate until 1908; 1889-91, 1900-02 and 1906-08: Vice-Chancellor; he was several times acting dean of the faculty of medicine; in 1877 he had given £1000 for a scholarship in natural science 'with especial reference to Comparative Anatomy' and told the chancellor of his great 'gratification in being permitted to be the first graduate of the University to give sensible expression to the gratitude I feel for the invaluable benefit conferred on me when a humble student'; he also donated the west window of the hall in the Medical School building.
Highlights of his political career included: 1879: he won East Sydney at a by-election and held it till 1882; 1881-83: Secretary for mines in the Parkes-Robertson ministry and carried the Ad eundem Degrees Act, an act establishing an anatomy school in the university and the Sydney Hospital Incorporation Act; he represented Redfern and was minister of public instruction under Sir Patrick Jennings in 1886-87; 30 December 1887: he was appointed to the Legislative Council.
Other achievements: Charitable works, e.g. he set the pace in improving conditions at the Benevolent Asylum, especially in standards of care for women and children, and worked for a separate lying-in hospital; He was a New South Wales commissioner for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880, a vice-president of the commission for the Amsterdam Exhibition in 1883, vice-president and later president of the commission for the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition in 1887 and a New South Wales representative commissioner at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in 1893; Association with various commercial enterprises, e.g. Renwick was a director and chairman of the Australian Widows' Fund, Mutual Life Assurance Society and the Industrial Building Society; 1894: he was knighted.
He died at his home at Burwood on 23 November 1908 of heart disease.
Information taken from the Australian Dictionary of Biography
Senate resolution on the death of the Hon Sir Arthur Renwick
The Senate reports with great regret the death of the Honourable Sir Arthur Renwick, B.A., M.D., which took place on the 23rd of November 2008.
The following resolution was passed by the Senate at its meeting on the 7th of December 2008:-
The Senate desires to place on record its profound regret at the decease of the Hon. Sir Arthur Renwick, Β.Α., Μ.D., Kt., formerly Vice-Chancellor and a benefactor of the University of Sydney, and also its deep sympathy with Lady Renwick and the members of the family at their loss. Sir Arthur Renwick was one of the oldest graduates of the University of Sydney, having graduated B.A. in 1857. As a Fellow of the Senate for a period of 31 years, and as Vice-Chancellor, to which office he had been elected several times, he rendered important and valuable service to the University.
Sir Arthur was a member of the Faculty of Medicine since the year 1873, and had acted as Dean of that Faculty. He gave much time and attention to the affairs of the University, and was held in the highest esteem by his colleagues, by whom his loss will be deeply felt.
From the Report of the Senate for the Year ended 31st December 1908, page 439, 1909 Calendar