Sir Edward Weary Dunlop was a surgeon in the Australian Army during World War Two. Dunlop was born in 1907 and grew up on a farm in Victoria.

Weary was a natural athlete at school in Benella. When Weary left school he got a job in the local pharmacy. Eventually he was bored of small town life and headed for Melbourne in 1927. He studied medicine at Melbourne University.

Soon after graduating Weary took a job as a ship’s surgeon and sailed to London. World War Two started and Weary knew that his skills were needed. After a year from enlisting in the army , he was sent to Java in Indonesia. The Japanese had attacked the island and Weary was needed to treat the victims. But just two weeks after his arrival the Japanese had captured the town here he was staying. The prisoners were taken by ship from Singapore to Burma, and then crammed in a train for a five day horror ride to Thailand.

The Japanese wanted to build a train track all the way from Thailand into Burma. The prisoners with Weary had to build the train track and for Weary it was hard because he was commander and a s commander he had to decide who was fit enough to work. He argued with the Japanese captors about making people work that were sick. He always stood up to his captors and was even tortured by them.

After the war Weary continued working as a surgeon  in Australia and parts of Asia. In 1969 Weary was knighted in recognition of his contribution to his medicine. In 1993, ten days short of his birthday Weary passed away. Ten thousand people lined up n the streets of Melbourne for the state funeral of the man thy called “The surgeon of the railway.”

Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop inspires me because he stood up to the Japanese and thought about the railway workers more than himself. Weary was a brave man  and he will always be remembered.