# Lucy Meredith Bryce

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{{short description|Australian physician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
'''Lucy Meredith Bryce''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|CBE}} (12 June 1897 – 30 July 1968) was an Australian [haematologist](/source/hematology) and medical researcher, who worked with the [Australian Red Cross Society](/source/Australian_Red_Cross_Society) to establish the first [blood transfusion](/source/blood_transfusion) service in Australia.<ref>Penny Robinson, [http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0720b.htm "Australian Red Cross Blood Service"] Australian Women's Archive Project, The Australian Women's Register, created 10 February 2004.</ref>

==Early life and education==
Lucy Bryce was born in [Lindfield, New South Wales](/source/Lindfield%2C_New_South_Wales), and educated in Melbourne, at the [Melbourne Girls Grammar](/source/Melbourne_Girls_Grammar) School. She entered Janet Clarke Hall, the women's hostel of [Trinity College, University of Melbourne](/source/Trinity_College%2C_University_of_Melbourne) in 1915, earning degrees at the [University of Melbourne](/source/University_of_Melbourne) in 1918 (B.Sc.) and 1922 (M.B., B.S.).<ref name="auto">M. L. Verso, [https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bryce-lucy-meredith-5411/text9169 'Bryce, Lucy Meredith (1897–1968)'] ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 2 January 2016.</ref>  Notable Australians who also graduated in her class included Dame [Kate Isabel Campbell](/source/Kate_Isabel_Campbell), [Jean Littlejohn](/source/Jean_Littlejohn) and [Jean Macnamara](/source/Jean_Macnamara).<ref name=ABD1>[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/macnamara-dame-annie-jean-7427  Australian Dictionary of Biography website, ''Dame Annie Jean Macnamara (1899-1968)'', article by Ann G. Smith]</ref>

==Career==
Bryce started her career at the [Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research](/source/Walter_and_Eliza_Hall_Institute_of_Medical_Research) after college. While still in her twenties, she spent a year working at the [Lister Institute](/source/Lister_Institute) in London. From 1928 to 1934, she was on staff as a bacteriologist at the [Royal Melbourne Hospital](/source/Royal_Melbourne_Hospital), before launching a private practice as a pathologist.

Beginning in 1929, Bryce was the founding director of the Victoria Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, which was Australia's first blood transfusion service.<ref>Matthew Klugman, ''Blood Matters: A Social History of the Victoria Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service'' (Australia Scholarly Publishing 2004). {{ISBN|1740970667}}</ref> Her work involved planning how donors should be screened, and how blood should be typed and stored, and supervising the establishment of a blood reserve in case of major disaster.<ref>Walter & Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research: Contributions to Society, [http://discovery.wehi.edu.au/timeline/red-cross "1939: The Institute Joins Forces with the Red Cross to Provide Wartimes Blood Transfusion Services"].</ref><ref>Mark Cortiula, [http://www.anzsbt.org.au/publications/documents/1998_Vol5_1.pdf "Going Back to the Future: The Origins of a National Blood Service in Australia"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160227014730/http://anzsbt.org.au/publications/documents/1998_Vol5_1.pdf|date=27 February 2016}} in Ken Davis, ed., ''Topics in Transfusion Medicine'' 5(1)(1998): 20–22.</ref>

During World War II, Bryce held the rank of major in the [Australian Army Medical Corps](/source/Australian_Army_Medical_Corps)<ref>G. J. McCarthy, [http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P000953b.htm "Lucy Meredith Bryce"] ''Encyclopedia of Australian Science'', entry created 20 October 1993.</ref> and was invited in 1944 to the US with [Marjorie Bick](/source/Marjorie_Bick) to study developments in blood transfusion,<ref>{{Cite news |date=1944-08-15 |title=WOMEN'S NEWS |work=Daily Telegraph |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247873682 |access-date=2022-07-23}}</ref>''' '''then again with Bick in 1945, arriving on the ''S.S.'' ''Kanangoora'' in March<ref>{{Cite news |date=1945-03-02 |title=VICTORIA |work=Guinea Gold |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article250660470 |access-date=2022-07-23}}</ref> to visit the Hooper Research Foundation in [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles) then to [New Orleans](/source/New_Orleans) and [Washington](/source/Washington%2C_D.C.),<ref>{{Cite news |date=1945-05-04 |title=Blood Plasma Now Mass Produced In U.S.A. |work=Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135002594 |access-date=2022-07-23}}</ref> attending a conference of the blood substitute committee of the [National Research Council](/source/National_Academies_of_Sciences%2C_Engineering%2C_and_Medicine).<ref name="Woman's World">{{Cite news |date=1945-04-30 |title=Woman's World |work=Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245340588 |access-date=2022-07-23}}</ref>  Bryce then traveled to investigate clinical methods while Bick stayed on at Harvard.<ref>{{Citation |author1=Australian Red Cross Society. |title=Annual report |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-61759344 |issue=Thirty-First (1944-45) |year=1965 |location=Melbourne |publisher=The Society |issn=1035-1809 |id=nla.obj-61759344 |access-date=23 July 2022 |author2=Australian Red Cross Society. |section=v. : ill.; 25 cm. |via=Trove}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1945-02-28 |title=Australians To Study Blood Transfusions |work=Courier-Mail |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48949422 |access-date=2022-07-23}}</ref>  She reported on the mass production methods at the [Cutter Laboratories](/source/Cutter_Laboratories) of packing and shipping plasma and whole blood to be parachuted into the Pacific war zones.<ref name="Woman's World"/>  Their research coincided with a plan to expand the Blood Bank into a new floor of the Royal Melbourne Hospital.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1945-04-06 |title=Blood Bank For State |work=Age |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206869147 |access-date=2022-07-23}}</ref>

In 1948, she was called upon as an expert witness in a case involving the identification of two newborns, alleged to have been switched at birth.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dNFVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6LwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5590%2C3698701 "New Witness Testifies in Baby Case"] ''The Age'' (13 November 1948): 3.</ref>

Bryce retired from active involvement in the Blood Bank in 1954, but continued to hold her title as honorary chair of the transfusion committee until 1966.<ref>Ann Westmore, [http://www.jnmhugateways.unimelb.edu.au/umfm/biogs/FM00069b.htm "Lucy Meredith Bryce"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304091000/http://www.jnmhugateways.unimelb.edu.au/umfm/biogs/FM00069b.htm |date=4 March 2016 }} ''History of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences'', Centre for the Study of Health and Society, 8 September 2003.</ref> She was named a Commander of the [Order of the British Empire](/source/Order_of_the_British_Empire) in 1951 for this work.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1065138|title=Dr Lucy Meredith Bryce|last=|first=|date=|website=It's an Honour|access-date=2020-02-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23048393 |title=What goes on? She made her pioneering work saving lives. |newspaper=[The Argus](/source/The_Argus_(Melbourne)) |location=Melbourne |date=1 January 1951 |accessdate=2 January 2016 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Bryce wrote a history of the transfusion service, ''An Abiding Gladness'' (1965), as well as many scientific articles.<ref>D. C. Cowling, [https://members.racp.edu.au/page/library/college-roll/college-roll-detail&id=289 "College Roll: Lucy Meredith Bryce"] ''Royal Australasian College of Physicians''.</ref><ref>Lucy Meredith Bryce, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ml7HtgAACAAJ ''An Abiding Gladness: The Background of Contemporary Blood Transfusion and Its Story During the Years 1929–1959 in the Victorian Division of the Australian Red Cross Society''] (Georgian House Pty. Limited 1965).</ref>

==Personal life and legacy==
Bryce died in 1968, age 72.<ref name="auto"/>

There is [a crater on Venus](/source/List_of_craters_on_Venus) named for Bryce,<ref>Joel F. Russell, [https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1994/0235/report.pdf ''Gazetteer of Venusian Nomenclature''] (US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 94-235, May 1994): 16.</ref> and a portrait of her is on display in Lucy Bryce Hall, which houses the Central Blood Bank in Melbourne.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O55VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GawDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6798%2C4607150 "Dr. Lucy Bryce to be Honored"] ''The Age'' (30 April 1959): 8.</ref> Bryce Place in the Canberra suburb of [Florey](/source/Florey%2C_Australian_Capital_Territory) is named in her honour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/25600604|title=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Periodic (National : 1977 - 2011) - 15 May 1987 - p6|website=Trove|language=en|access-date=2020-02-15}}</ref>

In 2001, Bryce was inducted posthumously to the [Victorian Honour Roll of Women](/source/Victorian_Honour_Roll_of_Women).<ref>{{Cite web |date= 21 February 2024|title=Lucy Bryce CBE |url=https://www.vic.gov.au/lucy-bryce-cbe |access-date=2025-03-14 |website=State Government of Victoria |language=en-au}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryce, Lucy Meredith}}
Category:1897 births
Category:1968 deaths
Category:Australian haematologists
Category:University of Melbourne alumni
Category:People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne)
Category:Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:20th-century Australian women scientists
Category:People educated at Melbourne Girls Grammar
Category:Medical doctors from Sydney
Category:Medical doctors from Melbourne

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lucy Meredith Bryce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Meredith_Bryce) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Meredith_Bryce?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.