The statue of Dr Will Russ Pugh sculptored by Peter Corlett is situated in Prince's Park, Launceston.
Pugh was the first to use ether in surgery in Australia,
William Russ Pugh (1806–97) was a medical practitioner credited with administering the first surgical anaesthetic in the southern hemisphere. Pugh received instruction in Edinburgh and Dublin, and in 1835 set up practice in Launceston. An enthusiastic experimenter, he produced coal gas to light his house, and the ether for his anaesthetics.
On 7 June 1847 he performed two operations at St John`s Hospital, removing a tumour from a woman`s jaw and cataracts from a man, under ether anaesthesia. That day he wrote an account of the procedures for the Australian Medical Journal.
