Mabel Josephine Mackerras


Mabel Josephine Mackerras was an Australian zoologist, entomologist and parasitologist. Her research and life’s work contributed to entomology, veterinary medicine and medical science. Throughout her life she held a wide range of positions and duties that included Army medical officer, entomologist, medical scientist, and parasitologist. Mackerras was a major during WWII and served in the Army Malaria Research Unit. In an application for King’s Birthday Honours her work earned the citation,: "few women can have made a greater contribution to the Allied war effort".

Life and times

Mackerras was born as Mabel Josephine Bancroft on 7 August 1896 at Deception Bay, Caboolture District, Queensland, elder child of Thomas Lane Bancroft, an English-born medical practitioner, and his wife Cecilia Mary, née Jones from Brisbane. She was the granddaughter of Joseph Bancroft.
On 8 October 1971, Mackerras of Ridley Street, Turner and member of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Division of Entomology died in Canberra. She was buried in the Canberra cemetery. In WWII she held the rank of major and served in the Malaria Control Unit of the Australian Armed Forces. She was survived by her husband and only son.
The wife of Ian Murray Mackerras, Josephine was awarded the Clarke Medal in 1965. In 1966, she was elected a fellow of the Australian Society of Parasitology.

Education

She was educated at home by her mother and found delight in the study of plants, animals and insects. She assisted her father in his research projects at the Deception Bay residence. Mackerras attended the Brisbane Girls Grammar School and was awarded prizes in mathematics. She enrolled in the University of Queensland and graduated in 1918 with B.Sc., and in 1930 with M.Sc.. From 1918 to 1920, she held the Walter and Eliza Hall fellowship in enomic biology. Thomas Harvey Johnston was her honours academic advisor and she collaborated with Johnston in research that led to several important joint publications. In 1924, she completed the M.B. at the University of Sydney. During her time at the University of Sydney, she met Ian Murray Mackerras, her future husband. The young couple enjoyed sailing and fishing during the weekend breaks, and would not feast on the catch until thorough laboratory analysis of the fish blood for haematozoa.

Early career

The first paper the couple published as a team, recorded the blood parasites of Australian marine fish. The couple was married in an Anglican service on 5 April 1924 at Grosvenor Flat, Eidsvold, Queensland. The team of Mackerras and Mackerras had a noteworthy husband-and-wife partnership in Australian science history.
Mackerras completed residency at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. She then opened a small private practice and still found time for a part-time appointment at the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children. In 1926, when her son was born, she placed her professional career on hold. In 1930, Mackerras joined the unit led by her husband, as assistant entomologist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's division of economic entomology in Canberra. Her research on blowfly infestation and ephemeral fever led to several individual and joint publications with husband Ian Mackerras and Frank Macfarlane Burnet. The unit was a successful research team that increased the knowledge of the control of sheep blowfly, buffalo fly, tick fever, and ephemeral fever in cattle. After WWII broke out, on 7 February 1942, Maclerras joined the Australian Army Medical Corps as captain and was stationed in the Sydney area.

Malaria research

By June 1943, malaria had a significant impact on the troops in the Southwest Pacific Area. To seek a solution to this burgeoning problem affecting the troops, Mackerras, Hugh Ward and Bill Keogh proposed an organization that would focus on the scientific investigation of the disease. In 1943, the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit was established under Neil Hamilton Fairley at Cairns, Queensland. From 1943, Mackerras was attached to the Medical Research Unit as entomologist and promoted to major in March 1944.
She actively maintained a colony of infected mosquitoes that were utilized on volunteers for medical testing. Her work proved beneficial to reduce the incidence of infection in the armed forces, and delivered a scientific basis for studying the effects of pharmaceutical drugs on the malarial parasite. In March 1946, the Medical Research Unit was disbanded and she collaborated with colleagues to publish several important papers on the work with malaria.

Post WWII

In February 1946, after the troops were demobilized, Ian and Jo Mackerras resumed their work with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. In April 1946, the couple moved to the Yeerongpilly laboratories in Brisbane. At the Yeerongpilly laboratories, Ian initiated studies on the control of the cattle tick and Jo commenced work on the Simuliidae.
In September 1947, Mackerras obtained a position at the Q.I.M.R. as senior parasitologist. The next endeavor that captured her attention and became her major contribution to scientific knowledge came from her study of the parasites of Australian mammals. She revealed and explained the life history of the rat lungworm. This species would prove to be the cause of eosinophilic meningitis in the indigenous people of the Pacific islands.
A parasitic nematode species of lungworm, Angiostrongylus Mackerrasae, was named in her honor. The Mackerras husband and wife team also focused their efforts on the examination of the role of cockroaches in the transmission of salmonella, especially to children. The Mackerras couple collaborated on definitive works on the haematozoan parasites of Australian birds, frogs and fishes and produced several papers in this area. Another pursuit the couple explored dealt with parasites in several Australian marsupials.
In 1961, Mackerras retired from the Q.I.M.R.. She returned to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization at Canberra as research fellow in the division of entomology. Mackerras would again study the cockroach and contributed a chapter on the subject in her husband’s book, The Insects of Australia.

Professional service

[Thomas Harvey Johnston]