Sir John Dudley Gibbs Medley was an Australian businessman and administrator. He held the position of Vice-Chancellor at the University of Melbourne from 1938 to 1951.^[1]

Medley was born on 19 April 1891 in Oxford, England to Dudley Julius Medley and Isabel Alice Medley (née Gibbs). He was the eldest of seven children.^[1]

Medley was commissioned in 1914 in the 6th (Glamorgan) Battalion, Welsh Regiment. He later served as a railway transport officer in France and Belgium.^[1]

Medley was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne on 1 July 1938, and oversaw the administration and leadership of the university through World War II. He was chairman of the Vice-Chancellors' Committee, which met regularly during the latter stages of the war to plan the activities of the newly founded Universities Commission^[2] and the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme.^[1]

In 1971, the John Medley Building at the University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus was named in Medley's honour.^[3]

Medley Hall, the smallest residential college of the University of Melbourne, was named in Medley's honour in 1955.^[4]

Medley was a member of the Eugenics Society of Victoria, an organisation which, among other things, justified the White Australia Policy and the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents.^[5] In the light of that, students at both Melbourne and Monash universities campaigned in the mid-2010s to rename the John Medley Building at Melbourne University and the John Medley Library at the Clayton campus of Monash University. ^[6]

The Monash campaign was successful and the library was renamed the Student Union Recreational Library (Surly).^[7][8]