Date: |
5 March 2020 |
Time: |
7:00PM |
Location: |
Ernest and Marion Davis Library |
Entry: |
Members and Non-Members |
Title
'Douglas Jolly: forgotten pioneer of trauma surgery'Presented by
Mark Derby & David LoweAbstract
Mark Derby
Speaking alternately, David Lowe and I will outline Doug Jolly’s life and work as a pioneer of battlefield and trauma surgery who gained a distinguished reputation abroad but is now almost forgotten in his own country. We will note some of the medical innovations he developed during the Spanish Civil War and WW2, and how they influenced surgical practice in later conflicts such as in South Korea and Vietnam, and in peacetime trauma medicine. Finally, we will explore why Doug Jolly is not better known today for his professional achievements and indicate how we intend to celebrate his personal example and body of work.
David Lowe
The aim of my talk will be to outline the ongoing project of a “citizen historian “armed with the internet and the intention of shedding light on Doug’s remarkable life and career. Topics to be discussed will be the development of mobile surgical units for the battlefield, the early use of blood transfusion and the book that Doug wrote from his Spanish Civil War experience. Lt-Col Jolly’s experience in World War Two will be discussed with particular reference to the early use of penicillin. From a biographical point of view, I will discuss the causes that motivated Doug and the possible reasons for the shape that his post war career took.
Title
'Arthur Purchas - no ordinary doctor'Presented by
John SteeleAbstract
“No Ordinary Doctor”…… is a brief dip into the extraordinary life and times of one of NZ’s most important medical pioneers – Dr Arthur Purchas. The presentation aims to support the proposition that Arthur Purchas’s standing within the NZ medical world and his contribution to this country’s civic and cultural life, may have been sorely under-rated.
Trained at Guy’s, Purchas came to NZ in 1845 to help George Selwyn in what Laurie Gluckman says was probably NZ’s very first medical school – St John’s College, Purewa. Purchas made an immediate impact on early colonial life – as a doctor, priest, architect of Selwyn churches, explorer, geologist, botanist,inventor, musician and intermediary on behalf of the Kingitanga, with whom he developed a special relationship. His story of early general medical practice, pioneer surgery and anaesthesia is one of exceptional skill, courage, tragedy and success.
Book details: ‘No Ordinary Man’ - the extraordinary life and times of Dr Arthur Purchas. John will have some books available to purchase for $35.00, cash – the RRP being $39.95. Published by David Ling Publishing 350 pages, 40 illustrations.
Presenters
Mark Derby
I am a Wellington writer and historian and have worked for European newspapers, for the Waitangi Tribunal and for Te Ara – the online encylopedia of NZ, among others. I hold a Masters in New Zealand Studies. I have written a number of books on NZ social history, including two on New Zealanders who served in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. My most recent book is a history of Mount Eden Prison, for publication later this year by Massey University Press.
My current writing project is a biography of NZ-born surgeon Doug Jolly, for publication by the University of Nebraska Press. This book will draw heavily on a cache of personal letters and other documents, now held by Jolly’s step-grand-daughter in Canberra and located by my colleague David Lowe. Research for this project has already resulted in the placement of a plaque to Jolly on an historic building in Cromwell, Central Otago, built by his grandfather in the 1870s.
David Lowe
Dr David Lowe is an intensive care specialist at St Vincents Hospital in Sydney, Australia qualified in anaesthesia and intensive care. He is involved in the day to day management of trauma and cardiothoracic transplant patients amongst a wide range of other critically ill patients.
David grew up in Cambridge, England attended secondary school in Cambridge and Auckland, New Zealand and qualified in medicine at Auckland University. He completed post-graduate qualifications in Australia.
An interest in the life and work of the New Zealand surgeon Dr Douglas Jolly was sparked by reading a biographical paper published by the American surgeon David Adams in 1990 (“Douglas Waddell Jolly as a pioneer in the surgical treatment of trauma”). After volunteering and serving in the Spanish Civil War Doug Jolly’s book “Field Surgery in Total War” is said to have been influential in Allied military medical planning at the start of World War Two but has largely been forgotten.
Based on a family archive found in Canberra and various sources of original documents in the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Spain a paper on the life and work of Dr Jolly was published in the Journal of Medical Biography in 2018 in collaboration with the Wellington based writer Mark Derby.
John Steele
After graduation (Auckland University - languages) Steele began his career in the 1960s as a journalist (NZ Herald & NZBC). After working in PR and marketing for Ford Australia and Ford New Zealand, he became general manager of a Ford car and truck dealership in Auckland in the 1980s. He was CEO of Mercedes Benz and Freightliner NZ for 10 years in the 90s and CEO and chairman of the Jaguar- Land Rover - Volvo NZ group, before retiring in 2009.
In retirement he has returned to writing, with a particular interest in NZ historical biography. The first of 3 books was published in 2012, together with numerous articles and editing roles for various papers, books
and journals. A life-time interest in the guitar and music stems from a cabaret career in the 1960s. He was a Trustee on the Middlemore Foundation for 7 years, twice president of the Motor Industry Association,
Rotary Paul Harris Fellow and has been active on heritage and historical trusts in Mercury Bay and Auckland. Married for 50 years, he has four adult sons and 13 grandchildren while other interests include
fishing and reading.