Dr Kathleen Athel Hockey AO
Dr Kathleen Athel Hockey AO

MBBS (Melb) MD (UWA)

Dr Athel Hockey (‘40) had a long and distinguished career in genetics and was frequently referred to as “the mother of medical genetics” in Western Australia. She pioneered clinical genetic services that either identified a child’s existing hereditary condition or warned expectant women about the inherited health risks facing their unborn child.

Dr Athel Hockey (‘40) had a long and distinguished career in genetics and was frequently referred to as “the mother of medical genetics” in Western Australia. She pioneered clinical genetic services that either identified a child’s existing hereditary condition or warned expectant women about the inherited health risks facing their unborn child.

In 1956, as a paediatrician treating children with intellectual disabilities for the then Slow Learning Children’s Group, Dr Hockey established a diagnostic clinic at Princess Margaret Hospital where children underwent biomedical testing to establish the cause of their condition.

Along with Dr Ian Walpole, then Senior Lecturer in Child Health, Athel was later instrumental in setting up and running King Edward Memorial Hospital’s Genetic Counselling Clinic in the 1970s. In 1978, she completed the qualification of Doctor of Medicine by thesis at the University of Western Australia, and was then appointed Consultant Medical Geneticist at Princess Margaret Hospital and the Disability Services Commission. From 1986 until1991, she held the position of Director of Genetic Services in Western Australia.

In 1991, Athel was awarded an Officer in the general division of the Order of Australia for services to medicine, particularly through the care of people with disabilities and to medical education about the genetic implications of certain disabilities. In 2000, to commemorate her enormous contribution, the University of Western Australia bestowed the inaugural Athel Hockey Prize in Medical Genetics. This annual prize continues to be awarded to the most promising student in Medical Genetics.

After graduating as top medical student at the University of Melbourne in 1947, she wed another graduate, Harold McComb who became a prominent Perth plastic surgeon. They raised four sons and for many years she was chatelaine of their historic Peppermint Grove mansion – The Cliffe. Athel died on March 13, 2011 aged 87. She was survived by her husband and three sons, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

August 2015