Catherine Hamlin AC

Catherine Hamlin AC (1924–2020), obstetrician and gynaecologist, graduated from the University of Sydney in 1946 and went to work at Crown Street Women’s Hospital, where she met fellow doctor Reginald Hamlin. In 1958, the couple answered an advertisement in the Lancet calling for doctors to establish a midwifery school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There they developed a surgical technique to repair horrifying – though relatively common – cases of obstetric fistula, opening a clinic dedicated to this endeavour in 1961. In 1974, they established the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. Since then, the hospital and its offshoots have provided free treatment for more than 50,000 women. Following her husband’s death in 1993, Hamlin expanded the work of the hospital, lobbying and travelling extensively to raise funds for its clinical functions and training facilities, and to ensure that all patients could continue to receive free treatment. She was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1995, and was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Still funded entirely by benefactors around the world, Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia is now a healthcare network with more than 550 Ethiopian staff servicing six fistula hospitals, a rehabilitation centre and the Hamlin College of Midwives.