NOTED PLASTIC SURGEON

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25209, 13 June 1947, Page 6

NOTED PLASTIC SURGEON

KNIGHTHOOD FOR NEW ZEALANDER WORK OF SIR ARCHIBALD M’INDOE A New Zealand plastic surgeon who revolutionised the treatment of extreme burns and made medical history in plastic surgery during the second world war has received a knighthood in the King’s Birthday honours. He is Sir Archibald Mclndoe, formerly of Dunedin, who is consultant in plastic surgery to the Royal Air Force and surgeon-in-charge of the Queen Victoria Plastic and Jaw Injury Centre. Sir Archibald Mclndoe is the second New Zealand plastic surgeon to be knighted for his work. The first was Sir Harold Gillies, also of Dunedin, who has an international reputation as a plastic surgeon. For some years Sir Archibald Mclndoe was associated with Sir Harold Gillies Born in Dunedin in 1900, Sir Archibald Mclndoe was educated at the Otago Boys’ High School and the University of Otago. He left New Zealand in the early twenties and studied at Rochester, Minnesota, where he held a fellowship in surgery at the Mayo Foundation and Mayo Clinic from 1924 to 1928. From 1929 to 1930 he was assistant surgeon at the Mayo Clinic. Sir Archibald Mclndoe arrived in England in 1930 as the holder of a James William White travelling scholarship in surgery in the course of a world-wide visit to surgical clinics. He became chief assistant to the plastic department of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and in 1932 became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and joined Sir Harold Gillies In 1939 he was appointed Hunterian Professor. During the war the Queen Victoria Plastic and Jaw Injury Centre became famous for the treatment given to badly-wounded airmen. Sir Archibald Mclndoe was in charge and airmen were treated for jaw fractures, explosive wounds, multiple scars on the face, leg wounds with skin loss, and burns. So successful was the treatment that a high percentage of the desperate cases eventually returned to active service. At least 40 per cent, of the cases were members of the Royal Air Force, but other services ana civilians were also treated. Many air raid casualties went to the hospital, and casualties from the Middle East, including members of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Sir Archibald Mclndoe was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1944He is assistant plastic surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s and St. Andrew’s Hospitals, and consulting plastic surgeon to the Royal North Staffordshire Infirmary, the Hampstead Childrens Hospital, and the r Croydon General Hospital. He is also surgeon to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. . In 1924 Sir Archibald Mclndoe married Miss Adonia Aitken a daughter of Mr and Mrs Thomas Aitken. Of Kensington, Dunedin. They have two daughters, Adonia, aged 19. an “ Vanora, aged 15.