In A Pow's Will, Words To Benefit A Future Generation Of Women

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday May 12, 2008

Steve Meacham and Elizabeth Heath

CHILDBIRTH in NSW may be made a little safer in years to come - thanks to a will scribbled out on a scrap of paper 63 years ago in a prisoner of war camp in the final days of World War II.

The University of Sydney has just received a $4.2 million bequest from the estate of a former student, Dr Albert McKern.

McKern, who was 60 when he died of amoebic dysentery in Belalau internment camp in Sumatra in 1945, had the foresight in the camp to compile a complicated will that would eventually deliver $US11 million ($11.66 million) to the three universities around the world where he studied: Sydney, Yale and Edinburgh.

His dying wish? That 10 years after the death of the last of his wife and three sons, the proceeds of his property empire would establish "research scholarships for investigation into the causes, prevention and treatment of mental and physical pain and distress during pregnancy".

McKern's fortune was made in George Town, the state capital of Penang in modern-day Malaysia. He practised medicine but also built up significant property holdings.

His life changed when the Japanese invaded in December 1941. He tried to flee on a P&O ship but it was captured, and he was interned in the Dutch East Indies. Two months before the end of the war he died, partly because the drugs he took for combating dysentery had been confiscated. His friend M.J.V. Miller, a planter, wrote in his diary: "We had not been in Belalau long before he had another relapse, there was no drug to combat it. I ... helped to put him in his coffin which was just a rough box made of rough, unplaned planks. We buried him among the rubber trees."

Not long before his death, McKern composed the new will, writing: "I hereby direct that none of my land or house property be sold until the time specified hereunder in this will."

He stipulated his doctor's partnership be sold to reduce his overdraft. He instructed that bungalows and flats be built on his vacant land and other properties in Penang be renovated and let out. His shares were not to be sold until they reached a certain price. McKern's wife and three children were to inherit all of the assets for the period of their lives.

His four grandchildren approve of his bequest. One, Bill McKern, said, "He was a gynaecologist among other things, and was in the front line of exposure to puerperal fever. He was saddened by how women suffered and died."

Two instalments of $2.5 million and $1.7 million were paid to the University of Sydney in March.

"It's an extraordinary story," said Professor Bruce Robinson, the dean of medicine. "Who could have expected that more than 60 years after Dr McKern's death in a prisoner of war camp, his legacy would be used to improve the health of women during childbirth."

He said no decisions have yet been made on programs to be funded by the bequest.

"But we are aiming to work collaboratively with Yale and Edinburgh, including supporting the exchange of researchers ... All three universities are internationally recognised for their expertise in reproductive medicine, and this bequest gives us an unexpected opportunity to strengthen the links."