Colonel Keith Towsey

St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital

Colonel Keith Towsey entered the Australian Regular Army in 1996 while studying Medicine at the University of Tasmania.

He completed general surgery fellowship in 2008 and deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 as a general surgeon. After returning, he completed a fellowship in Burns, Trauma, and complex hernia repair at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Promoted to Major, he later became a visiting surgeon there, focusing on burn, trauma, and acute surgical care.

Promoted to LTCOL in 2016, he was deployed to Iraq in 2017 as a general surgeon and later served as Senior Medical Officer at Headquarters 11th Brigade. Keith has been heavily involved in improving burn care training for the ADF, including the Early Management of Severe Burns course, working alongside the ANZBA education committee and mentoring ADF personnel into instructor roles.

In 2021, upon promotion to Colonel, he was posted to HQ 1 DIV, where he developed the ADF Burn capability plan. Since 2010, he has also run a private general surgery practice at St. Andrews War Memorial Hospital and has served as Director of General Surgery since 2018.

Colonel Towsey is dedicated to burn education, trauma surgery, and mentoring. He is married with two children and enjoys bushwalking and precision rifle shooting.