OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26397, 16 April 1951, Page 8

OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY

UNIVERSITY CHAIR AT AUCKLAND

SOUTH AFRICAN DOCTOR APPOINTED

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND. April 14. The post-graduate chair of obstetrics and gynaecology at Auckland University College has been filled. The appointment went to Dr. Gerald Spence Smyth, 8.A., M.D., F.R.C.P.1., F.R.C.0.G., of Johannesburg, South Africa. \

| Dr. Smyth will be paid £2700 a year. He will also be medical director of the obstetrical and gynaecological unit at the hospital and of the new women's hospital when it is erected. He will have no right of private practice within the hospital, but may be allowed a limited consulting practice at the discretion of the College Council. Any fees so earned will be paid to the university college. Dr. Smyth, who is 47, is married, with four children. He received his early medical education at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Later, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in both arts and medicine. In 1929 he spent several months in gynaecological and obstetrical clinics in Vienna and later served two years at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin. Dr Smyth spent three months in the United States in 1932 visiting leading obstetrical clinics. Later, he returned to Johannesburg and began practice as a specialist on obstetrical and gynaecological work. He also held important hospital and teaching appointments in South Africa. In World War II he served in a combat unit and later in command of the 23rd Field Ambulance of the South African Medical Corps. Commenting on the appointment, the president of the Auckland University College Council (Mr W. H. Cocker) said that it represented a landmark" in the development of education in Auckland and New Zealand. The Council and its advisory committee were satisfied that Dr. Smyth was a first-class operator, an inspiring teacher, and a nerson of outstanding personality. There was only one other such post-graduate chair in the British Commonwealth. That was in the University of London.