Bancroft, Joseph

Dr Joseph Bancroft migrated to Brisbane, Australia in 1864. From 1868 he was house-surgeon to the Brisbane Hospital. Bancroft had a strong interest in natural history and agriculture.

Joseph Bancroft was also President of the Philosophical Society of Queensland 1882-83, when it was absorbed into the newly-formed Royal Society of Queensland; President of the Medical Board of Queensland 1882-94; First president of the Section of Hygiene and Public Health of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science; President, Queensland branch, British Medical Association, which later founded a Bancroft memorial lecture and medal in his honour. The worm, Filaria bancrofti, was named after him. The Brisbane suburb of Kelvin Grove was named after his house.