The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Lucy Blanche Biggs was born on 20 December 1909 in Scottsdale in Tasmania. She completed her medical training at the University of Melbourne, graduating MB BS in 1946. She held appointments at the Bendigo Base and the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospitals before embarking on work as a medical missionary in Papua New Guinea.

Dr Biggs was the first medical Coordinator for the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea from September 1948 to January 1974 working in the northern district of Papua. In 1948 she was appointed by the Australian Board of Missions to Eroro and spent the next twelve years in Eroro in general practice before moving onto St Luke’s TB hospital in 1968. She was transferred to medical administration at Popandetta and resigned in 1974.

Dr Biggs was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1975 for her work as a medical missionary in Papua New Guinea. Her life in Papua is detailed in her regular newsletters – 110 of them over 25 years – which she published under the title From Papua with love.