OBITUARY

Evening Star, Issue 23915, 19 June 1941, Page 8

OBITUARY

MR GUTHBERT M'CAW The death occurred recently at his homo in Mount Eden road, Auckland, of Mr William Cuthbert M'Caw, a leading Auckland orthopaedic surgeon and chairman of the honorary staff of the Auckland Hospital. Mr M'Caw, who was aged 53 years, had been in practice in Auckland for nearly 20 years. He obtained his degrees in medicine and surgery at Otago University in 1912, and took up practice at Ahaeawai, Bay of Islands. In July, 1915, ho was granted a captain’s commission in the New Zealand Medical Corps, and posted to the hospital ship Maheno, in which he served until early in 1916. Later he was for a long period on the staff of No. 2 New Zealand General Hospital at Walton-on-Thames, and was mentioned by the Secretary of State for War for valuable services in the United Kingdom. He was awarded the diploma of F.R.0.5., Edinburgh, iu 1916. After returning to New Zealand, Mr M‘Caw was attached to the King George V. Military Hospital at Rotorua, and also crarried on orthopaedic work in the military annexe to the Auckland Hospital. On the establishment of the War Pensions Appeal Board he was nominated by the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association as its representative on the board for the Auckland district. This position he held continuously for 17 years until his retirement in 1940. During the last 14 years of this period Mr M‘Caw and the Government nominee, Dr W. N. Abbot,, carried on much systematic research into disabilities attributed to war service. Under the chairmanship of Sir Walter Stringer, who also retired last year after long service, the Auckland board won a high reputation for the consistency and fairness of its decisions. Mr M‘Caw was for more than 15 years a senior orthopaedic surgeon on the honorary staff of the hospital, and last year was elected chairman. He took a keen interest in the interior design of the military hospital now being erected in the Domain, and secured a number of changes in tbo plans to meet requirements which long experience of war surgery led him to consider necessary. A member Of tho Auckland Golf Club, Mr M'Caw was also a keen angler. Ho is survived by his wife and two daughters. The deceased was born at Mosgicl in 1888. He was the youngest son of the late Dr Hugh M‘Caw, and received his education at the Otago Boys’ High School, prior to entering the Otago University. The remains were interred in the family plot at East Taieri Cemetery.