Prior, Guy Percival Underdown (1872-1950)

Probably born in England since his medical qualifications are English, and he died at West Ryde, Sydney, N.S.W., on 27 March 1950.  

He arrived in Adelaide in 1899 and joined the Public Service of New South Wales in 1903 after practising as a general practitioner in Penola, S.A., and later being on the staff of the Naval Hospital in Fiji.  He then specialized in mental and associated disorders, and was Medical Superintendent of Rydalmere Mental Hospital (1914-26) and of Parramatta Mental Hospital (1926- 36).  At one period he was Acting Inspector.General of Mental Hospitals in New South Wales. 

The papers he wrote appear to be restricted to medical subjects, for example,  The Endocrines and Mental Disorders, Med. J. Aust. (31 October 1925) and Syphilis and Neurosyphilis treated by Electro. pyrexia, Med. J. Aust. (6 January 1937).  His biography in Med. J. Aust. records that on presentation of his main paper on endocrines he was given an ovation by an appreciative medical audience in Sydney, and that visiting overseas specialists recognized Dr Prior’s high status in that aspect of medical research.  

Collector of the type of Eucalyptus ficifolia F. Muell. var. alba Maiden (1920). He took a keen and energetic interest in the grounds and sporting facilities of the institutions he controlled and the type of the eucalypt variety cited above was collected in the grounds of the Rydalmere Mental Hospital.