Augustine Birrell was a leading Australian academic and educationalist. Born in South Australia into a family of Irish descent, he was educated at Christian Brothers College, Sydney, and the University of Sydney, where he qualified as a doctor. He taught medicine at both the University of Adelaide (1927–9) and in the United States (at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore in 1930–32). He married Dorothy in 1933 and they had four children
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His early career was devoted to the advancement of medical education through teaching posts in Australia and Canada, and in 1948 he took up the chair of Medicine at the University of Sydney. In 1952 he became professor of psychiatry at Leeds University. Later he became chairman of the Committee on Medical Education at the British Medical Association (1956–60), and was also president of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (1957–60).
In 1960 he returned to Australia to become pro-vice-chancellor and chancellor of the University of New South Wales. He retired from all these positions in 1968 and died nine years later in Sydney on 30 June 1982.