Ian Dan Carter

In loving memory of Ian Dan Carter who sadly passed away on 6th July 2018
CARTER Ian Dan
Ian Dan Carter was born on 5 July 1928 in Adelaide.
His father George Box Carter was a veteran of the first World War. He was among the first 25 to land at Gallipoli. He later served in France. He was awarded the Military Cross.
Ian’s mother Elizabeth Catherine Barbara Jemima Leask was a war bride. She was from the Shetland Islands but had a French ancestry. She met George whilst he was on leave and she was serving in a shop.
After the war George and Betty went back to Adelaide. George was a labourer who developed skills as a carpenter or builder.
Ian was the youngest of 3 children. His 2 sisters, Irene and Betty, were several years older than he was. As they tell the story as the youngest by some distance and the only boy Ian was very spoilt as a young boy.
Ian was exceptionally bright. He finished second in the State exams at the end of the equivalent to primary school and won a full scholarship to one of the prestigious private schools in Adelaide, St Peter’s College. Although bright he was also at that age easily distracted and not committed to studying. After 2 years he lost his scholarship due to inadequate results and he finished his schooling at Adelaide High.
In 1945 he started his medical degree at the University of Adelaide. He met his wife to be Mary Caroline Swann there in an organic chemistry lecture.
In 1952 Ian graduated with a degree in medicine and in June 1952 Mary and Ian were married.
Their first son Simon was born in July 1953. The family moved to Sydney where Ian worked in a general practice and he also did a public health course.
At the beginning of 1956 Mary was heavily pregnant with their second child Jeremy who was born in March. Ian went to the UK to do a course in tropical medicine whilst Mary went to Adelaide to stay with her parents.
In 1957 Ian took the family to Guatemala where he gained practical experience in preventative medicine. After several months in Guatemala the family moved to Baltimore in the United States where Ian did more studies in communicable diseases at the John Hopkins University. The family spent a couple of years there and a daughter Julie was born in Washington DC in January 1958.
Ian also joined up with the Navy reserves. He was promoted to Surgeon Lieutenant Commander in June 1958.
After finishing at John Hopkins Ian took up a position with the World Health Organisation, WHO. Initially Ian was assigned to work in Sarawak where he was heavily involved in travelling to remote villages to spray their huts and try to combat diseases such as malaria.
Mary returned to Adelaide in February 1960 for the birth of their 4th child Leigh. In 1961 Ian accepted a position at WHO headquarters in Geneva as part of a department charged with the surveillance of communicable diseases.
Ian remained based in Geneva until the end of 1986 when he retired. During his time with WHO Ian played a major role in the world wide eradication of smallpox, and spent 6 months in India travelling to remote parts of the country testing people.
After his retirement Ian and Mary travelled the world for the best part of 28 years. Their children were based in Brisbane, Perth, Canada, and Cambridge UK respectively so they visited each regularly and also spent time driving a mobile home across the United States and through Europe and Australia.
At the beginning of 2014 Mary had a major stroke and she eventually passed away in March 2014. Without Mary Ian found that he no longer had the desire to travel and he settled in a unit in West End which he and Mary had intended to live in. He loved to go down to Orleigh Park (which he did on a daily basis) to talk to people walking their dogs and watch the river. Despite advancing memory loss he remained fiercely independent and insistent that he could cope on his own.
In May 2018 the increasing memory loss finally persuaded him to seek assistance and he moved into a bedsit unit at Hilltop Gardens a nursing home in Kelvin Grove on 24 May 2018.
Unfortunately he had only just settled into a new lifestyle when on the morning of the 4th July, the day before his 90th birthday he fell in his room and broke his right shoulder and his right hip. An operation to pin the right hip was performed at the Wesley Hospital on the evening of 4 July. He spent the next day, his birthday, in hospital before passing away suddenly in the early hours of the morning of the following morning.
Ian’s relatives and friends are invited to attend his memorial service that will be held at the Brisbane Sailing Club. 68 Hill End Terrace West End on Friday 20th July 2018. Ian’s service will commence at 1:00 pm