MEETINGS 

(Photos & editor Judy Murphy)

 Click on photos to enlange & scroll  

2 July 2025 

 University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau Medical Students-Medical Humanities Projects

From left: Sudikshya Parajuli  History of Anesthesia; 

Charlotte Tukiri History of the Ketogenic Diet

7 May 2025 

From left: A history of cataract surgery  presented by Charles McGhee;  A history of nitrous oxide presented by Shilpan Patel 

 5 March 2025

From left:  Dr Philson presented by Iain Wakefield; Dr Thomas Moore Philson's trunk displayed  at EMDL; Vasalius -the origin of modern anatomy  presented by Ali Mirajalili. 

 

7 November 2024

The Plan is the Plan. Failure is not an option 

Sir Ashley Bloomfield with Neil Anderson 

 

5 September 2024 

From left: Rod Ellis Pegler (Photo C Ducobu), Brian McAvoy 

From left: A record ~ 100 attendees. Presenters Ricky Shen, Nadia Turner. 

4 July 2024

Neil Anderson with presenters - Ngaire Kerse, Ted Richards, Megan McPherson, Karan Govindpani, Jessica Parr

 

2 May 2024

 Neil Anderson with Ben Kingsbury; John Collins; Neil Anderson with Tim Cundy   

 

14 March 2024 

Below: Felicity Goodyear-Smith, Cris Print, Poul Nielsen 

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AMHS MEDICAL HISTORY PRIZE WINNERS 

2024 Friederike Voit

  Click on Archives to read essays /see names of previous prize winners 

July 2023 Student presentations.  

Megan Kuan - History of the Anti- Vaccine Movement,

Claudia Hall - A History of Lobotomy  

DONATIONS NEEDED 

 Meetings are free but we rely on donations to support the Society. Please consider making a donation. See donations page. Online donations preferred. 

MAILING LIST 

Join our mailing list to hear about meetings   

Email your contact details to: AMHS Secretary  

RECENT PUBLICATIONS  

Frontline Surgeon: New Zealand Medical Pioneer Douglas Jolly. Mark Derby

(2024  Massey University Press) 

Jock Caughey: Physician and Humanitarian .Neil Anderson

2023 Mary Egan Publishing

The Best Country to GIve Birth? 

Midwifery, Homebirth and the Politics of Maternity in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1970–2022.

Linda Bryder (2023 Auckland University Press)

Click on respective book titles for details

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Our Health Journeys

A new national e-museum

An online platform for the sharing and collecting of stories 

CONFERENCE  

Australia New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine conference,  Sydney 8-15 July 2025

Health History in the Making  

2025 FINAL PROGRAMME 

 

ARCHIVES 

Read about this this much acclaimed documentary & a range of other interviews

  The Doctor's Wife

     RNZ interviews 

 

HISTORY & HERITAGE

(Photos as attributed, editor Judy Murphy) 

94 years serving the local community & the link with AMHS 

No other general practice in New Zealand has functioned for so long in the same premises.

In 1931 during the Depression, Dr Edward Roche and Dr Barbara Roche opened a general practice at 457 Mt Eden Road. Their gracious family home built in the 1880s was ideal for their practice. The same practice founded 94 years ago, continues to serve the local community today as the Mount Eden Medical Centre at 457 Mt Eden Road.

“It was right in the middle of the slump and things were very tough then. In our first month, we took £16. We stuck it out and eventually it was a big practice. In the first year, we made more money from playing cards, than we did from fees”.  Edward Roche. 

Edward Roche was a founder of the AMHS in 1964 along with Laurie Gluckman and James Newman, and he was the first AMHS president. Edward Roche was interested in cardiology and in 1944 transferred to Green Lane Hospital where he was involved in developing ECG services and cardiac catheterisation.  His 1983 history of Green Lane Hospital Green Lane Saga – Green Lane Hospital 1889-1982 was co-authored with his son, cardiologist  Dr Antony Roche. 

Click on links in blue text above and below:

Dr Tom Marshall’s recollections

Central Leader article 25 November 2011

Mount Eden Medical Centre today

(Photo & information courtesy MEMC) 

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New Zealand WW1 Medical Practitioners 

Dr Pat Clarkson in collaboration with the Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph team has compiled a record of more than  500 New Zealand doctors who served in WW1. (Records updated 2025) 

 NZ Doctors WW1 or Auckland Museum

Click on link above, then search icon (screen top right)

enter NZ Doctors WW1

New Zealand WW1 Nurses

 

Auckland Hospital nurse Charlotte (Lottie) Le Gallais was one 10 nurses selected  to serve on the first voyage of the New Zealand hospital ship Maheno in July 1915; 550 New Zealand registered nurses served overseas with the New Zealand Army Nursing Service (NZANS).  

See  Auckland Museum then on "Search"  (top right screen) - enter "NZ Nurses WW1" 

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Left: Lottie Le Gallais (Auckland Museum Online Cenotaph); New Zealand Medical Services (National Library): WW1 Operating Theatre, 1 NZ General Hospital, Brockenhurst (Auckland Museum); NZANS 10 nurses drowned on torpedoed ship Marquette 1915 along with 22 other NZrs.  (Auckland Museum Hall of Memories - JM);Dental  Corp (Auckland Museum); 2 NZ General Hospital, Walton on T hames. (file photo): Nurses drowned on the Marquette. (RNZ file) 

Below: Hospital ship Maheno with signatures of the New Zealand  Medical Corps (NZMC)  and nurses (NZANS) on board. (Photo EMDL collection) 

 

The Ernest & Marion Davis Library 

Coats of Arms presented to the EMDL (Universities & Medical Colleges).  EMDL collection. 

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Photos JM

Left: 2024 Helen Taber 

Right: 2022 Visitors from Auckland Museum with EMDL librarian Victoria Bell,  (centre) 

80th Anniversary of Cornwall Hospital

   

Heritage Day 24 February 2024 Commemorating Cornwall Hospital. Peter Stone & Judy Murphy. A small group of visitors born at Cornwall Hospital. (Photos  JM)

The  39th General Hospital, built by Fletcher Construction for the US Army in Cornwall Park in 1943. In 1945 the 1000 bed/ 48 ward  hospital was vacated by the Americans; 23 pre-fabricated buildings were then taken over by the Auckland Hospital Board to establish Cornwall Hospital, the Obstetric & Gynaecological Unit (renamed National Women's Hospital opened in 1955).   See links to: 

• History of Cornwall Park Hospital by James Newman

• 39th US General Hospital, Auckland WW2. 2015 Dr Pat Clarkson

• Celebrating our past - a timeline of historical links with Cornwall Hospital

• The Yankee Hospital: the 39th General Army Hospital.

                      (Isabella Wensley, Auckland History Initiative.)

 Cornwall Park c. 1943 (File photo)

Centre: July 2023 James Newman Lecture. Bring Back the Cane presented by John Cullen. Photo with AMHS president Neil Anderson. (Photos JM) 

Special Interest talk- with curator Juliet Hawkins, veiwing the contents of the c.1880 Homeopathic Medicine Chest  (Photo JM)