Hereward Kesteven

Who was Hereward Kesteven?

Hereward Leighton Kesteven was an Australian medical scientist.

Born at Levuka, Fiji, to medical officer Leighton Kesteven and Caroline Elizabeth, née Eames, he and his family moved to Brisbane in the 1880s and to Sydney in 1891, where Hereward attended Sydney Church of England Grammar School until his father's bankruptcy forced him to leave. He became technical assistant to the Australian Museum's curator in 1903 and on 18 October 1905 married professional musician Irene "Ivy" Valentine Smith. He attended the University of Sydney and received a Bachelor of Science in 1909, a Doctorate of Science in 1911, a Bachelor of Medicine in 1914 and a Master of Surgery in 1916. He lectured at the physiology department of Sydney Technical College from 1908 to 1913 and published A Manual of Practical Bio-Chemistry in 1912.

In 1915 Kesteven entered general practice at Belmore, later practicing at Gin Gin and Gladstone in Queensland before returning to Sydney in 1919, where he received his Doctorate of Medicine. He set up practice at Maroubra but in 1920 relocated to Bulahdelah.