Joseph Cooke Verco

Joseph Cooke Verco was born on 1 August 1851 at Fullarton, Adelaide, sixth child of James Crabb Verco, builder, and his wife Ann, née Cooke, both from Cornwall, England. He attended  J.L.Young's Adelaide Educational Institution (1863-67) and worked briefly for the South Australian railways before entering the Collegiate School of St Peter. Enrolling at the University of London (M.B., 1875; M.D., 1876; B.S., 1877), he won four gold medals. He was admitted as licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (1875) and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (1877), and became a midwifery assistant at St Bartholomew's Hospital (1877).

Returning to South Australia, Verco registered as a general practitioner in 1878, but gradually specialized as a physician and proved a skilled diagnostician. He was one of the earliest doctors in Adelaide to use a case-records system: when this became onerous, he learned shorthand. Honorary physician at the Adelaide Hospital and honorary medical officer at the Adelaide Children's Hospital.

With Edward Charles Stirling, Verco founded the University of Adelaide's medical school in 1885; he was a precise, if unexciting, lecturer in medicine (1887-1915) and also a clinical teacher at the Adelaide Hospital; his students found him reserved, punctilious and severe, and nicknamed him 'holy Joe'.

Despite an attack of enteric fever, in 1887 Verco presided over the first Intercolonial Medical Congress of Australasia which was held in Adelaide. He was a foundation member and president (1886 and 1914-19) of the South Australian branch of the British Medical Association and a council-member of the University of Adelaide (1895-1902 and 1919-33). 

Survived by his wife, Sir Joseph died childless at his North Terrace home on 29 July 1933 and was buried in West Terrace cemetery.