Kevin Francis Hamilton Hume

Eulogy by Joan Hume
Tribute by Dr Lyn Billings

Eulogy by his daughter Joan Hume

Born 9th November 1918 - Died 3rd January 2009 Little Sisters of the Poor, Randwick 10th January 2009

Paterfamilias, physician, papal knight, golfing champion, advocate of Natural Family Planning and the rights of the unborn child, globe trotter, fund raiser, senate candidate, Gilbert and Sullivan fan, devoted husband, stern disciplinarian, gentle and gracious
grandfather.

These are some attributes of our father, Kevin Francis Hamilton Hume's life. He lived a full and rich existence: rich in a loving, tender life-long partnership with our mother, Peggy, bountiful in children and grandchildren, compassionate and indefatigable in the care of his patients over 60 years, fearless in the pursuit and promotion of his ideals but always grounded in his faith in Christ and fierce loyalty to the practice of Catholicism.

Dad was born in Coogee on the 9th November 1918, the third child of Veronica and Walter Hume. He often reminded us that he was actually due on Armistice Day - two days later - but was mighty eager to get on with the business of living.

Our Aunt Lurline, Dad's older sister recounts in her family memoir the story of Dad's arrival. Most births in the early 20th century took place at home usually attended by a mid-wife and the local GP. Dad's mother had already suffered two difficult labours and was anxious about her third delivery, especially given the lack of effective pain relief. A bottle of Brandy was provided to see her through. It so happened that the attending mid-wife was fond of a tipple.

By the time Dad was ready to come, the brandy bottle was empty and the mid-wife passed out on the couch. Barely five years old, Auntie Lurl was dispatched to fetch an aunt who lived nearby to help with the delivery.

Miraculously mother and son survived. I can't vouch for the mid-wife.

The earliest years of Dad's life were prosperous and comfortable but disaster struck the family in 1931 when his father, Walter, a real estate agent was bankrupted by the economic pressures of the Great Depression.

The family home in Oberon Street and many of their belongings were repossessed by the bank which then magnanimously rented the home back to them. It was a cruel humiliation and the family struggled to survive. Perhaps it was these experiences which taught him thriftiness.

About this time initially as a way of earning a few bob Dad discovered caddying and the pleasures of golf which was to become a life long passion. He used to cycle from Coogee to Botany and Brighton Golf courses the latter now gobbled up by Kingsford Smith airport.

The golfing expertise he gained then was to earn him two university blues later when he was a medical student at Sydney University and subsequently several trophies from the New South Wales and Royal Sydney Golf Clubs where he enjoyed long memberships.

Dad went to Brigidine infants' school and was the first of our immediate family to be taught by the late Mother Declan, an Irish firebrand and fine teacher.

His high school years were spent at Waverley College on a bursary. Here Dad's love of golf was nurtured by Brother Lacey, the sportsmaster. Dad was a prefect, member of the first XV in Rugby Union, the second XI and a champion swimmer.

It was at Waverley that he met Bryan Curtin who became his closest friend and academic rival throughout school and university. The late Dr Bryan Curtin became a leading Macquarie Street physician, our sister Tess's beloved godfather and together with his wife Marie and their eight strapping boys, an intimate part of our early lives, especially at Narooma.

Dad, Bryan, Justice John Slattery and Frank Ellis a successful business man, Waverley College Leaving Certificate alumni of 1936, were all to become papal knights. A record, I understand that has never been equaled. That outstanding class of 40 boys produced eight doctors and three lawyers.

We are privileged today to have Bryan's son, Stephen, the current provincial of the Jesuits in Australia, as a concelebrant at this requiem.

Dad met our mother Peggy, a cheeky, mischievous and pretty blonde when they were about 17 years through the St Brigid's Coogee parish youth club. By the time he started at medical school in 1937, so successful was Dad as its president that surrounding Catholic youth clubs folded in favour of Coogee with its focus on dances, picnics, bushwalking and swimming especially in the Royal National Park.

Our aunt Joan, mum's sister has described Dad in those days as a "nuisance, always hanging around". Well he obviously knew when he was onto a good thing and never had eyes for anyone else over the next 70 years. Mum took a little longer to make up her mind since there were other suitors.

They were married in 1943 at St Brigid's Coogee, honeymooning at Wamberal on the Central Coast. Being wartime, Dad newly graduated in medicine, was called up, serving in Western Australia and Borneo.

In the army; Dad didn't take too kindly to taking orders, he preferred to give them. He was nearly court-marshaled twice: once for breaching censorship regulations in his letters home to Mum and on the other occasion after war was officially declared over, he went
AWOL.

This involved dropping in on his brother-in-law Dick who was stationed nearby. Fortunately with the war's end the charges were dropped and Dad arrived home safely to set up practice in Randwick with Mum's unfailing support.

Carmel had already arrived to be followed in rapid succession by Frank, me and Kevin in the late 1940s then Tess, Mick and Margie in the early to mid 1950s. Our house in south Randwick was too small for the growing family so in 1953 we moved to the Judge Street address where Dad remained for 55 years until a few months ago.

Dad's practice on the corner of Silver Street and Belmore Road was established in 1947 and remained a part of the Randwick community for over 60 years. He only formally retired from medicine last year at the age of 89. A pretty good innings.

In the early years Dad's working hours were punishingly long: Monday to Saturday in the surgery, on call day and night, every day for emergencies and home visits. He delivered babies, possibly in the hundreds, until he turned 65.

As children growing up we only saw him at evening meals and on Sundays which was usually the day of retribution. Beware; he never, ever spared the rod. He often said, "I'm not running a democracy here, if you don't like it you can move out!"

To us children in those early days he was a somewhat stern, forbidding and humourless figure but always loving and affectionate with Mum.

The softer, more relaxed side emerged at Narooma where we had a holiday home, a duplex built side by side on the beautiful, unsullied Forster's Bay.

We stayed in one side and the other was usually rented out to family friends with equally large numbers of children, the more the merrier.

We also had a most unreliable launch, a dinghy and a jetty. Here Dad golfed, fished and swam ensuring that we were proficient and safe in the water at an early age.

They were happy and carefree days. After 10 years the then Department of Main Roads decided to build a highway through the middle of our house and compulsorily reclaimed the property. The highway was never built and the house is still intact today.

Mick recalls an incident with Patrillatine. launch I'd like to share. This boat could carry 10 people safely and another 10 unsafely. Usually we were carrying at least two large families, friends, animals and other sundry fauna, not to mention fishing tackle, picnic hampers etc.

Sometimes it didn't break down. Once we had on board several Brigidine nuns holidaying from Cooma. Dad thought the fishing would be better on the other side of the shallow channel.

On cue we hit the sandbank and were stuck. As dad pondered this predicament, the nuns threw their lines over the side and started the rosary.

Sure enough the tide rose and we floated free. The nuns caught their
evening meal. Praise the Lord!

As we grew into adulthood, completed our education and began our own careers, Dad had more time to develop his interests especially in natural family planning through his friendship with Drs John and Lynn Billings.

This outstanding, pioneering couple had developed the ovulation method which Dad saw as a practical and morally acceptable alternative to artificial contraception.

His growing passion for overseas travel neatly dovetailed into his desire to promote the O.M. For well over thirty years Dad crisscrossed the globe, attending countless conferences, running workshops and training teachers in over 20 countries including Columbia, Zimbabwe, Sweden, India, Indonesia, China, Eastern Europe.

He gathered friends from all over the world. Some of most humble origins, others most distinguished, many of whom stayed in our family home. Mum patiently bore all these disruptions and as usual provided magnificent meals for the weary travellers.

one of my favourite stories involves a Rear Admiral of the American Pacific Fleet and a famous rock star.

In 1975 after the fall of Saigon, Dad volunteered to work with the refugees from Vietnam evacuated to Guam. Once there Dad checked out the local golf course and happened to play a game with Rear Admiral George Morrison.

Dad invited the Admiral to play at Royal Sydney if ever he was in
Australia. By the strangest coincidence, Admiral Morrison was to visit Sydney in a matter of weeks. After the game he joined us for dinner at home and happened to ask if we'd ever heard of The Doors. Had we ever!! "Light my Fire""Riders on the Storm". We were dining with Jim Morrison's father!

In the 80s and 90s Dad stood for the Senate with the Call to Australia party latterly known as the Christian Democrats founded by the Rev Fred Nile. Mum joked that if he ever got elected she'd leave him. This party campaigned for Christian family values which Dad supported but he made sure he was far enough down on the ticket never to be elected.

As each grandchild arrived and life threw out some nasty challenges, such as the tragic death of Marion, Frank's wife and my injury, the gentle, more tender side of our father emerged.

Mum's health gradually deteriorated, first with the loss of her vision and then slowly dementia conquered her brain. When Dad could no longer care for her at home and she entered the Little Sisters, he visited her every day, fed her the evening meal and read to her. It was an inspirational effort at the end of a day's work in his late 80s.

After she died, his own health began to decline; these past few months dramatically. Following this recent operation his life quietly faded away.

Dad was a good man, a virtuous, prayerful and decent man, in some of his achievements even remarkable, who lived his values unfailingly to the end. A daily communicant, he truly loved the Mass and the church into which he was born and served so selflessly.

I am proud to call him my father and will treasure the example he has set.

Vale Dad, Christ and your beloved Peggy have called you home.

Dr Kevin Hume – Vale

Evelyn L Billings
January 2009

John and I have valued and loved Kevin as a dear friend for many years, and shared in many experiences with him. He came with us as travellers overseas, particularly in the developing countries of Africa, India and Latin America, as well as to Rome and to Poland in the days when its borders were threatened by Russian tanks. We were in Rome together with Kevin and Peggy, his wife, during those stirring days of “Solidarity” and met Pope John Paul II whose heart was in Poland.
We came to know Kevin in the early days of the development of the Ovulation Method (now Billings Ovulation Method™). He came down from Sydney to find out about the claims we were making in the late 1960s concerning natural fertility regulation and how we could teach every woman to understand her fertility and give every couple guidelines which they could apply, using this information, to either choose or postpone conception as they desired. These were the heady days of the contraceptive pill, and the Encyclical Human Vitae of Pope Paul VI (1968).
Both as a doctor and in fidelity to the magisterial teachings of the Church, Kevin brought to us a treasury of strength of friendship and, having proved to himself its veracity by teaching the Method now in its definitive form, he was unwavering in his convictions and joined with us in spreading the knowledge in many countries.
Early on Kevin made the acquaintance of Professor James B Brown whose hormonal verification of the rules of the Method was becoming better known. Later the physiology of the cervix was revealed by Professor Erik Odeblad. Kevin met Erik when the latter was in Australia at a Veterinary Conference and, as a result of their discussions, Erik became very interested in the application of his research to human reproduction.
Thus the clinical observations begun by John J Billings in the 1950s in Melbourne became indisputably supported by scientific research and by continued experience in teaching people of all nations.
Kevin made wonderful friendships all over the world by his enthusiasm and hard work and his devotion to all the people he taught. John and I loved him as a sincere friend and enjoyed his generous personality which made him the man he was – a wonderful husband and father, an excellent doctor, a faithful friend and a worthy Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great – an honour awarded to him for his devotion to the Church.
We thank God for the ninety years of memory-making for his family, for us and those he served – well loved by us all.