Dr. John Billings was an Australian doctor who pioneered the natural method of family planning. He was educated at Xavier College and at the University of Melbourne. Billings was awarded a Nuffield Fellowship for postgraduate studies in London, where he specialised in neurology. On his return to Australia, he was made Head of the Department of Neurology at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, and Dean of the Undergraduate Medical School within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Melbourne. In 1953, he and his wife, Dr. Evelyn Billings (DSG), began work on a method of natural family planning which involved observation of changes to cervical mucus. Together they founded the World Organization of the Ovulation Method Billings (WOOMB) as the center for teaching the method throughout the world. Although John maintained his career as consulting neurologist to St Vincent's Hospital, he and his wife also spent a large part of each year travelling to other countries, and training teachers in the Ovulation Method, lecturing to doctors and students, and establishing teaching centres. The method pioneered by the Billings was approved by the Catholic Church and used by the World Health Organization, and it was the only natural method accepted by the Chinese government. Billings was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1991. In 2003, he was awarded the Knight Commander Con Placca of the Order of St Gregory the Great, and Evelyn was named a Dame of Malta. John and Evelyn had nine children.

Emmaus Road Books:
The Great Life: Essays on Doctrine and Holiness

Other Books:
Gift of Life and Love: Love, Marriage and Natural Fertility Regulation (Catholic Truth Society, 2002)

The Gift of Life and Love (Apostolate of Catholic Truth, 1997)

The Ovulation Method - Natural Family Planning (Liturgical Press; 5th edition, 1984)

Human Love and Human Life: Papers on Humanae Vitae and the Ovulation Method of Natural Family Planning from the International Conference, University of Melbourne, 1978 (The Polding Press, 1979)

The control of life (s.n, 1975)

The ovulation method: The achievement or avoidance of pregnancy by a technique which is safe, reliable and morally acceptable (Borromeo Guild, 1972)