Seymour Argyle

Stanley Seymour Argyle was born near Kyneton, Victoria, in 1867. He was educated at Hawthorn and Brighton Grammar Schools, obtained his medical degree from the University of Melbourne and undertook further medical study in England. A man of broad public interests, Stanley was elected to local government in 1898 and drove a movement for the supply of pure milk. Around 1908, he specialised in radiology and was appointed ‘medical electrician and skiagraphist’, as the role of radiologist was then known, at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital.

Stanley was commissioned as a major in the AIF on 7 November 1914, attached to No. 2 Australian General Hospital (2AGH). He embarked on HMAT Kyarra from Melbourne on 5 December 1914. He was initially stationed with 2AGH in Egypt. He was then responsible for setting up the X-ray unit at No. 1 Australian Stationary Hospital when the advance base on Lemnos was developed in March 1915.

Following the Gallipoli campaign, Stanley served in Egypt, France and England. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in January 1917. Due to professional, family and financial reasons, he requested and was granted discharge from active service in April 1917, when he returned to Melbourne.

Following his military service, Stanley maintained a high-profile career. He was elected to the council of the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association and was later its vice-president and president. He also entered state politics, joining the Legislative Assembly in 1920. He later became a conservative opposition leader and a premier.

Stanley Seymour Argyle died in Toorak, Melbourne, in 1940.