Key dates
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
19th Century
1850s
1850 The University of Sydney was founded.
1856 13 June The Faculty of Medicine was formally created on 13 June 13 when the Senate appointed a Board of Examiners that included Professor John Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Experimental Physics and eight Sydney medical practitioners.
Professor John Smith was the first Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.
1870s
1874 By 1874 there had been 11 successful candidates for the MB examination.
1880s
1882 Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was the University's first teaching hospital.
1883 The medical school commenced teaching in March with four students in a four-roomed cottage built between the Great Hall and Parramatta Road. Initially the medical curriculum was five years with the first year spent in the the Faculty of Arts.
1883 Sir Thomas Anderson Stuart was the second Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. To strengthen the Faculty's teaching staff, he turned to the Edinburgh Medical School and recruited Alexander Robert, Scot Skirving, J T Wilson and D A Welsh.
1888 The Medical Society was formally recognised by Senate.
1890s
1890 JT Wilson became Professor of Anatomy when Anderson Stuart relinquished the position to concentrate on his other duties.
The medical course was lengthened to five years.
1891 The first part of the Anderson Stuart Building was completed.
1893 The Faculty of Medicine had been training for 10 years. Now 100 students had enrolled in the first year of medical training.
The first female medical students, Iza Coghlan and Grace Robinson, graduated.
20th Century
1909 Sydney Hospital becomes a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney.
1920s
1920 J T Wilson becomes the third Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.
1922 The Anderson Stuart building was completed.