First Title value, for Searching O'Regan, John Arthur Rolland (1904 - 1992)

2024-05-13T19:52:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008200-E008299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380422380422
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon Politician
Details John Arthur Rolland O'Regan (Ro) was born in Wellington on 1 June 1904, the son of Mr Justice O'Regan. He was educated at St Patrick's College, Wellington, and graduated from the Otago Medical School in 1928. He was house surgeon at Wellington Hospital and went to London in 1929 for surgical training. He was resident surgical officer at Poplar Hospital and at the Seamens' Hospital, Greenwich. He obtained his FRCS in 1931. O'Regan returned to Wellington in 1933 in general practice in the central area and then as a surgeon, being surgeon to Wellington Hospital (1936-60) and to the Home of Compassion, Island Bay (1933-63). Essentially he was a general surgeon with a special interest in cancer. In 1938 he became FRACS and later was a college and university examiner in surgery. He was President of the Cancer Society of New Zealand from 1963 to 1965. After retiring from the hospital he was chief medical officer to the New Zealand Railways from 1960 to 1965. He saw war service as surgeon to the hospital ships *Manganui*, *Oranje* and *Pacific Star*. He was present at the signing of the Japanese surrender in 1946 on Tokyo Bay aboard the USS *Missouri*. He inherited from his father a strong interest in social justice which he reinforced by wide reading. He was prepared to back any issue that he thought should activate all citizens. The abandonment of racist exclusions in sport, the war in Vietnam and nuclear disarmament were all espoused with vigour. On final retirement from surgery he had a second career in local government but failed to be elected to Parliament in 1966 as a Labour candidate. He served on the Wellington City Council from 1965 to 1974 where he was able to apply his great expertise in rating and land value. His book *Rating in New Zealand* is a reference on the subject. As he had been fond of the harbour since childhood he was happy in being a long-serving member of the Wellington Harbour Board, and chair from 1972 to 1974. Also he was one of the three members of the Sheehan Commission of Enquiry into Maori Reserve Land and wrote its report in 1974. O'Regan was a striking character graced with high intelligence and gifted with power in communication. While strongly assertive he was also genial and compassionate. A strong but independent loyalty was given to his religious faith and he was a founding member of the Guild of St Luke and SS Cosmas and Damian, to which he contributed considerably. He made his mark not only in his profession but in the wider community. An extensively read man since childhood, his declining years were sad as he lost his sight with macular degeneration and a succession of strokes eroded his verbal fluency. O'Regan married Rena Bradshaw of the Ngai Tahu people in London in 1932, and they had two sons and one daughter. Rena died in 1966 after thirty years of marriage. Three years later O'Regan married an old friend, Lena Dowling, who helped greatly with his disability. Lena died three weeks after O'Regan, who died on 20 November 1992.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008239
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Huggins, Rt Hon Godfrey Martin, Viscount Malvern (1883 - 1971)

2024-05-13T19:52:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-08-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005800-E005899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377984377984
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon Politician
Details Born on 6 July 1883, he was the eldest son of Godfrey Huggins, member of the London Stock Exchange, of Berkhamsted, and Emily Blest, his wife. After preparatory school Huggins went to Malvern College in January 1898, but had to leave in July 1899 because his schooling was cut short by illness as he developed acute otitis media complicated by mastoiditis. In 1901 he entered the medical school of St Thomas's where as a student he was a contemporary and friend of Max Page, Rowley Bristow and Sidney Macdonald. He qualified in 1906 with the Conjoint Diploma and then obtained successive house appointments at St Thomas's as casualty officer, house surgeon and senior house surgeon. After this he went to Great Ormond Street, first as house physician and later as resident medical superintendent, during which period he was admitted a Fellow in 1908. In 1911 after a serious illness he was advised to convalesce in a sunny climate and therefore chose to go out to Salisbury, Rhodesia, as locum for a general practitioner for six months. He decided to remain and set up as a general practitioner surgeon in Salisbury. When war broke out in 1914, he returned to England and was gazetted as a Captain RAMC and surgical specialist, serving in England, Malta and France. In 1915 as a result of his own war experience, he wrote a small handbook on the management and care of patients who had undergone amputation. Returning to Salisbury he decided in 1921 to give up general practice and became a consultant as he was recognised as one of the most able surgeons in Southern Africa. Even after his entry later into politics and when he ultimately became Prime Minister he found it impossible to abandon surgery completely owing to the demands of his old patients and of his friends. He would often operate in the early morning before going on to his ministerial duties and it was only in 1950 that he gave up surgery altogether. In 1921 he volunteered for service during a police strike, when he mediated successfully for the strikers and, as a result, was urged to stand for parliament. In 1923 he was elected to represent Salisbury North in the legislative assembly. Like many other Rhodesians he had favoured the linking of Southern Rhodesia with South Africa, but, after a referendum in 1922, he accepted the decision of the majority and joined the Rhodesian party to help implement self government. In 1928 he was returned with an increased majority, but he was becoming increasingly impatient with the policy of his party. When the world depression hit Rhodesia in 1930, the Government was forced to adopt stringent economies, and it was over the decision to reduce the salaries of civil servants that Huggins broke with the Government. One vote was needed to give the Government the necessary two thirds majority, which Huggins gave with reluctance, announcing that he would leave the party. In 1933 he was persuaded to accept the leadership of the Reform party in opposition. After a year, however, the majority of this party decided to join with elements of the Rhodesia party forming a new party under Huggins leadership. A general election followed in 1934 in the month of November and the new united party was returned with 24 seats. The next general election was held in April 1939 in view of the threat of war, instead of waiting the full five years, and Huggins' United Party was again returned with a majority of 23 seats. This Government carried on throughout the war period for seven years, but in the first post war election of 1946 was nearly defeated and in 1948 was defeated on a minor issue. By this time the question of closer union with Northern Rhodesia had become a dominant political issue and the United Party, led by Huggins, won a resounding victory, his party being in power during the negotiations for the formation of the Federation with Nyasaland. Huggins became Prime Minister of the Federation in November 1953. He had been the architect of the Federation but he resigned office on November 1 1956, the day the British and French Governments launched their Suez adventure. He was succeeded by Sir Roy Welensky who, like himself, considered that the British Government had let the Federation down. Huggins years as Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia were marked by the country's progress up to the outbreak of war in 1939, by its great record during the war and by its tremendous progress afterwards. He occupied the position of Prime Minister longer than any other man in the history of the Commonwealth, although he did not enter politics until after middle life. For many years he held the portfolio of native education, housing and hospitals, all of which made great advances, as did research in tropical diseases. Sympathetic in outlook towards the African and believing in social and economic advance rather than political advance, he was at the same time a realist, and as a result was assailed vigorously from time to time, both by those who thought that advancement of the African was not rapid enough, and by those who thought that it was too fast. Huggins caused comment in public life by his occasional apparent impishness, puckishness and a tendency, unusual in a politician, of saying exactly what he thought, irrespective of the time or the place, thereby exasperating his political opponents and giving anxious moments to his friends. His greatest disappointment was the defeat in 1962 as a result of the Southern Rhodesia election of Sir Edgar Whitehead and the United Party with the resulting emergence of the Rhodesian Front. The indications were that the Rhodesian electorate, after more than a generation, had turned away from the policy of racial progress initiated by him, Huggins. He expressed the opinion that it was a victory for those white Rhodesians who were opposed to any change. As the Rhodesia Front policies became increasingly intolerant, he expressed anxiety concerning the country's future. Pro-British and a loyalist, he condemned UDI, the declaration of a republic and the abolition of the Union Jack. Doubtless, being fully occupied as a surgeon for half his life, and partially even after he had entered politics, made him a realist. In 1938 he operated on his Governor, Sir Herbert Stanley and in 1939 on the Governor of Nyasaland; while on another occasion he dealt with a visiting British surgeon who had been mauled by a leopard. He was created a Viscount in 1955 and retired from office in 1956. Ever since his school days he had suffered from deafness, but he was a man of great energy, showing little strain, even when following two careers simultaneously. His relaxations were polo, golf, tennis and racing in his capacity as a steward of the Mashonaland Turf Club. In 1921 he married Blanche Slatter, by whom he had two sons. He died on 8 May 1971 aged 87.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005801
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: General practitioner - Politician

First Title value, for Searching O'Regan, John Arthur Rolland (1904 - 1992)

First Title value, for Searching Huggins, Rt Hon Godfrey Martin, Viscount Malvern (1883 - 1971)