Frank Apperly was born in Shepparton, Victoria, Australia, the son of William Berman Apperly, a bank manager, and Pauline Mary, daughter of Robert Longstaff, a merchant and brother of Sir John Longstaff, a portrait painter. From the state school at Eaglehawk he gained an entrance scholarship to Wesley College, Melbourne, and then one to Queen’s College, Melbourne University. In 1910 he went as Victorian Rhodes scholar to Lincoln College, Oxford, where he joined in most college activities, including rowing.

Following service in the R.A.M.C, from 1915 to 1918 he was medical superintendent of the Royal Northern Hospital until 1920 when he was appointed senior lecturer in pathology to Melbourne University and was in charge of an out-patient clinic at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He proved a good teacher, with main interests in functional disorders and in research in alimentary disease. There he remained until 1931 when he accepted the chair of pathology at the Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, in the U.S.A.; he made a marked contribution to its development.

He was a man of wide interests, including the study of history and architecture. In 1915 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Canon Foley of the Anglican Church in Dublin. They had two daughters.

Richard R Trail

[Med.J.Aust., 1962, 1, 262-3.]

Post publication addition:

Apperly's mother was Mary Pauline Longstaff, daughter of Ralph Longstaff, and sister of Sir John Campbell Longstaff. Apperly's wife Elizabeth was the daughter of Rev. William Foley.