Roy Coupland Winn—1890—1963

With the death of Roy Coupland Winn on 17 August, 1963 Australia lost a pioneer in psycho-analysis.

Roy Winn was born at Newcastle, New South Wales. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School; thence he went on to Sydney University and graduated in medicine in 1915, becoming a Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital whence he enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Corps for service overseas in the First World War. First as Captain, later as Major, he had a war record of great distinction, serving at Gallipoli and on the Somme, and being wounded in the Battle of Messines where he lost his right foot. He was mentioned in despatches and was awarded the Military Cross.

In 1918 he returned to Australia and became Resident Medical Officer of Sydney Hospital. Two years later he went to England for further medical and psychiatric training, and during his time in London he gained experience in psycho-analysis which led to his becoming an Associate Member and finally a Full Member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society. He practised for a few years on his return to Sydney as Honorary Physician at Sydney Hospital. In 1931 he relinquished this position to go into full time psycho-analytical practice, the first in Australia to do so.

It seems that Winn's interest in functional nervous disorder was first aroused by his wartime experience, as some of his observations on shell-shock are recorded in the Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, 1914–18. He was a foundation member of the Australasian Association of Psychiatrists and the breadth of his intellectual interests is shown by his membership of the Australasian Association of Psychology and Philosophy and of the Australian Anthropological Society.

When Australia's first training analyst, Dr Clara Lazar-Geroe, decided to come to this country from Hungary to settle in Melbourne and begin training activities at the newly-founded Melbourne Institute for Psychoanalysis, Roy Winn lent his e