South Australian Medical Heritage Society Inc

Sir Joseph Verco MB, MD, BS, LRCP, FRCS [1851-1933]

J C Verco in 1919.
From a framed photograph at the University of Adelaide, captioned "Dean of Dental Faculty, Adelaide University 1920-1928".
In earlier years Verco wore a full beard.

Sir Joseph Cooke Verco was born in Adelaide, the sixth child of builder and parliamentarian James Crabb Verco and his wife Ann nee Cooke, migrants from Cornwall in 1840. On finishing school, Joseph trained briefly as a civil engineer before travelling to England and graduating in medicine from the University of London, MB 1875, MD 1876 and BS 1877. He also obtained a LRCP and FRCS in 1877, returning to Adelaide the following year.

J C Verco soon became Adelaide's leading physician, being in private practice, and associated with both the Adelaide and the Children's hospitals. He also proved himself a capable administrator, naturalist and philanthropist. In 1879 Verco was a foundation member and then President of the SA branch of the BMA(SA). His tenure as president was extraordinary because the two terms that he held were thirty years apart and the second lasted an unsurpassed five years, spanning the duration of WW1 - part of his contribution to the war effort.

In 1885, with E C Stirling, Verco was founder of the University of Adelaide Medical School and also a clinical teacher at the Adelaide Hospital. Verco became a lecturer and for some time Dean of the school and was a precise, if unexciting, teacher; his students found him reserved, punctilious and severe, nicknaming him 'holy Joe'. Later, he was instrumental in establishing the Dental School and became its inaugural Dean.

Verco was held in such high esteem that in 1887 he presided over the first Intercolonial Medical Congress of Australasia which coincided with the Adelaide International Jubilee Exhibition marking the 50^th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne.

Outside of medicine, Verco was a world-recognized conchologist and a renowned President of the Royal Society of South Australia, being re-elected every year from 1903 to 1920. That society inaugurated the Sir Joseph Verco Medal in 1928 (he received a knighthood in 1919).

A devout member of the Churches of Christ, Verco was a Sunday School superintendent and generous donor to his church; he also wrote hymns and religious poetry. In 1911 he married Mary Isabella Mills (1866-1937). The couple were childless but on Verco's retirement he was succeeded in his practice by his nephew, William Alfred Verco. Joseph's death in 1933 marked the passing of the last foundation members of the BMA(SA).

PK