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Jean Macnamara, born April 1st 1899 at Beechworth, Victoria, and a graduate of the University of Melbourne, was a physician at the Children's Hospital Melbourne in 1922 and 1923, a consultant and medical officer to the Poliomyelitis Committee of Victoria 1925-1931, and medical officer, Yooralla Hospital School for Crippled Children 1928-1951.

During 1931-1933 she held the Rockefeller Foundation travelling scholarship, furthering her studies on poliomyelitis. While in America she learnt about the virus myxomatosis and it was largely due to her efforts that the Australian Government held field trials testing the virus as a means to eradicating Australia's rabbit problem.

She was on the part-time staff of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research 1933-1937. As Mrs Annie Jean Connor (she married Dr Ivan Connor in 1934), she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to the welfare of children in 1935, and was known as Dame Jean Macnamara.