NEW MEDICAL OFFICER

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 33, 8 February 1940, Page 13

NEW MEDICAL OFFICER

SIR HUGH ACLAND

A DISTINGUISHED CAREER

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

The appointment of Colonel Sir Hugh Acland, C.M.G., 0.8. E., as Assistant Dfrector of Medical Services in the Southern Military District, was announced yesterday. In 1900 and 1901 Sir Hugh was civil surgeon attached to the Royal Army Medical Corps in South Africa during the Boer War, and in 1912 he joined the New Zealand Medical Corps with the rank of captain. In March, 1915, he went to England to join the R.A.M.C., but while he was on the way he received notice by cable that he had been appointed to the No. 1 New Zealand Stationary Hospital with the rank of major. However, he served for one month at Aldershot with the R.A.M.C, and left for Egypt in June, where he was posted to the hospital at Pontekonbbah, which had been taken over by the first N.Z.E.F. This hospital subsequently became the second N.Z. Stationary Hospital, and after staying there temporarily, he joined his own unit, the No. 1 Hospital, in September, at Port Said. When he was moving with this unit to Salonika, on board the transport ship Marquette, his ship was torpedoed and sunk on October 23. 1915, in the Gulf of Salonika, only 40 miles from port.

Colonel Acland served in Salonika until March, 1916, when he returned to Egypt, and was then moved to France in June, being stationed at Amiens. In November he was transferred, to England, where he was put in charge of the surgical division of Brocklehurst Hospital, and some time later was appointed consulting surgeon to the N.Z.E.F.

In January, 1919, he returned to New Zealand, taking charge of the military section of the Christchurch Hospital, and the Chalmers Ward. In September he was released from service with the N.Z.E.F., after which, he served for part of the time as medical officer and consulting surgeon in charge of artificial limbs until 1922, when he returned to his own practice. He was posted to the reserve list of officers in 1921, and was knighted in 1935.