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Henry Pemberton was born into a family of doctors, but a career in medicine was not his first choice when he was growing up.

“I certainly had the benefit of growing up in a very medical family and I had insights into what the lifestyle would be like working as a doctor,” Henry says.

“Despite all the exposure, my mind was still open and I did want to do something different in primary school and then in high school.”

That “very medical family” now spans three generations: his grandfather, Professor Colin Binns, pioneering nutritionist, who still practises part-time as a GP at the age of 81; his parents, Richard Pemberton, head of the Urology Department, at St John of God Hospital, Subiaco, and Sarah Binns, a geriatrician who now assists her husband in robotic prostate surgery; and Henry, who has just started his residency at Royal Perth Hospital.

It was a surfing accident when Henry was 15 years old that he says sowed the seed of becoming a doctor.
“We were down south at Smiths Beach,” Henry recalls. “Dad and I had been surfing. I’d come in earlier from the surf. I looked up and saw Dad coming out of the surf and his ear was dripping blood and the end of his ear lobe was hanging off.

“In that moment, I had no idea what to do. I had no basic first aid.

“Luckily we came to Dunsborough and saw one of the GPs there on a weekend who agreed to stitch up dad’s ear, which saved us a lengthy trip to Busselton Hospital, and he did a fantastic job. He was cool, calm and collected the whole time. I thought that was very inspiring, how you can develop these skills that can make such a difference.”

At the end of Year 9 at school, Henry and his classmates at Christ Church Grammar were offered three choices of Friday afternoon activities: army cadets, environmental community cadets, or an afternoon at the beach doing first aid. Henry chose the beach!

“It seemed like a logical progression for me,” he says. “I did my bronze medallion during Year 10 and loved it, and then came back as an instructor. Certainly, it was at some stage in Year 10 that I made the decision that what I wanted to do was medicine.”

While he was a medical student at the University of WA – where his grandfather and parents also studied – Henry became a volunteer on the AMA (WA)’s Dr YES program, which sends teams out to metropolitan and rural high schools to have frank discussions about alcohol and drugs, sexual health and mental health. In 2024, he became overall team leader for the program.

Because of his experiences with Dr YES and a 12-month placement at Broome Hospital through UWA’s Rural Clinical School, Henry is keen to practise in a regional setting.

“Through Dr YES, you notice right from the start when you do these rural trips that there is a much lower level of health literacy. I think that’s sort of where a lot of the root cause of problems comes from,” he says.

“But then In Broome Hospital and places, you see the sheer prevalence of chronic disease, which is the other end of the spectrum, so I think there’s room to improve in how we deliver health services from the start in terms of health prevention all the way to the very end when people are dealing with these chronic conditions.

“Certainly, I’d love to return to a rural area in the near future to work.”

The Pemberton family’s medical legacy doesn’t end with Henry. His sister Annabel is now doing her Rural Clinical School placement in Geraldton and his other sister, Eloise, would like to go into medicine. However, his brother Oliver has just begun a law degree.