STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA J. D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION OH 691/6 Full transcript of an interview with MARY GRANT AND DR ALLAN KERR- GRANT on 29 August 2003 By Karen George Recording available on CD Access for research: Unrestricted Right to photocopy: Copies may be made for research and study Right to quote or publish: Publication only with written permission from the State Library OH 691/6 MARY GRANT AND ALLAN KERR-GRANT NOTES TO THE TRANSCRIPT This transcript was created by the J. D. Somerville Oral History Collection of the State Library. It conforms to the Somerville Collection's policies for transcription which are explained below. Readers of this oral history transcript should bear in mind that it is a record of the spoken word and reflects the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The State Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the interview, nor for the views expressed therein. 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Discrepancies between transcript and tape: This proofread transcript represents the authoritative version of this oral history interview. Researchers using the original tape recording of this interview are cautioned to check this transcript for corrections, additions or deletions which have been made by the interviewer or the interviewee but which will not occur on the tape. See the Punctuation section above.) Minor discrepancies of grammar and sentence structure made in the interest of readability can be ignored but significant changes such as deletion of information or correction of fact should be, respectively, duplicated or acknowledged when the tape recorded version of this interview is used for broadcast or any other form of audio publication. 2 TAPE 1 SIDE A This is an interview with Mary Grant and Dr Allan Kerr-Grant being recorded by Karen George for the Diabetes South Australia 50th Anniversary Project. The interview is taking place on the 29th August 2003 at Stirling in South Australia. First of all I’d like to thank you both for coming together tonight – It’s a pleasure. – to talk about Mary’s father, Ray Hone who was one of the founders of the Diabetic Association. So perhaps you could each introduce yourself, so that anyone who is listening knows who is actually talking. So just tell me a little bit about yourselves, just your name, where you were born, et cetera. You speak first. VS: Well, I’m Mary, his eldest child. Yes. And what is your date of birth and whereabouts were you born? MG Oh, I was born in 1924. I have a feeling he was married the year before and went to England on his honeymoon, and they got back just in time for me to be born (laughs) in October the following year. And you, Allan? I’m Allan Kerr-Grant, and the Kerr actually was the Christian name of my father who was a professor of Physics, and he was named just Kerr Grant, so that all of the three boys of us were all given the name Kerr, and that’s why it’s Kerr. Actually, it should be just Allan Grant, but I felt very proud of my father, and I, and another brother, kept that name, the Kerr. And I was born about two weeks younger than my wife (laughter) and I did my medical schooling here at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and then I went over to England with Mary to study gastrointestinal diseases having passed my diploma in the College of Physicians. VS: A higher degree, he meant. Higher degree. 3 Okay, well, we’ll start, perhaps – because you would have known your father before Allan – just with a little bit about your memories of your father. Just tell me a little bit about his background. MG You mean he was always working. Well, just tell me about – you were talking about your grandfather, and tell me a little bit about him, I guess, about your grandparents and your Dad and where he was born and those kinds of details. MG Well, he was – to my knowledge, he was born in Morphett Vale in the doctor’s house, which is still there on the corner of the main road and Doctors Road, I think it is. Yes, it’s Doctors Road. VS: And he was the GP in Morphett Vale. And I guess he was born in about 1898, would that be right? I think it’s right. And his father was Frank. MG Frank Sandland Hone, the GP. And his mother had been a nurse at the Adelaide Hospital. What was her name? MG Graham. Was she? I don’t know. VS: Doesn’t matter. Must be somewhere. Michael might know that. Yes. VS: And he was born there. And then the family moved from Morphett Vale to be the GP in Semaphore, and he grew up there as a schoolboy going to Prince Alfred College by the tram or train – train, probably – up to the city, wouldn’t it be, from Semaphore? And they were all great sports. You have to remember they were all great sports, but my grandfather and his brother were great sports, tennis and football. There was a Hone – 4 Hone Medal. VS: – football medal in Amateur League football after Albert, who died young. Frank Sandland Hone’s brother. And then, I don’t know when, the grandfather moved up to Unley Park and really was no longer a GP, was he? He was a physician and worked more as a general physician – Well, he became a physician, yes. VS: – as a physician was in those days. Yes. But he had the Diploma of Physician which he got from England. VS: My father did, yes. No. Your grandfather. VS: Did he? Yes, yes, he was. And he was one of – VS: I didn’t know he’d ever been to England. – he was – well, whichever way it went, that was the way it was awarded. And that’s the way they did it in those days. And he was a teacher and physician at the Royal Adelaide Hospital; indeed, he had a disease named after him, called Hone’s Disease. Which is? And I think that was a viral disease. VS: Something to do with community health, wasn’t it, and rats I think. Yes, yes, and he did a lot of work on that. I’ve got more on Frank Sandland Hone, I think, in one of the books that was written about the Adelaide [Hospital]. VS: There’s a book written on the history of the Adelaide Hospital which has a bit about some of the – Yes, it’s got quite a lot on him. VS: – and we look that up now and then on doctors. But he was a remarkable old man. 5 VS: They both were interested in education. Oh, yes. VS: They were both on the Council of the University1 – Yes. VS: – in their time. So before we started you were saying that you felt that your father was greatly influenced by his own father. Can you tell me a little bit about that? MG I think – see, his father did this research work into community health, fascinated with it. That’s right. VS: – and he always was later, wasn’t he? Yes. [Frank Sandland Hone]. VS: Always worked in community medicine. And his wife did too, actually – she was awarded something for work she did with difficult girls and various things. And once they got to Semaphore he decided they’d have summer in the Hills and they built a house – he bought land and built a house at Bridgewater, and every summer six children, maids, dogs, cats – the lot – were put on the horse and dray and taken to Bridgewater for the holidays. The house is called St.