Richard Albert Adams was a geriatrician in New South Wales, Australia. He was born in Sydney, the son of Richard George Adams, a police officer, and Mary Irene Adams née Hitchings, a music teacher. He was educated at Sydney Boys’ High School, and then went on to study medicine at Sydney University and the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He graduated in 1965.

From 1965 to 1967 he was a senior resident at Royal Newcastle Hospital in New South Wales. He then went to the UK, where he was a registrar at Woodend General Hospital, Aberdeen. He passed his membership examination of the RCP in 1975 and returned to Newcastle in Australia in the same year. He was then a staff specialist and subsequently a registrar at the Royal Newcastle Hospital. From 1981 to 1982 he was a registrar at St George Hospital, Sydney. He then returned to the Royal Newcastle Hospital, as a postdoctoral fellow. From 1984 he was a medical administrator. He ended his career as a geriatrician based at the Rankin Park and John Hunter hospitals.

In 1966 he married Penelope, a nursing sister. They had one daughter, Catherine, and a son.

RCP editor