EMINENT SURGEON KILLED.

King Country Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 909, 23 September 1916, Page 5

EMINENT SURGEON KILLED.

DR ARTjaUR A. MARTIN. WOUNDED IN SOMME ATTACK. London, Wednesday. Dr Arthur A. Martin, of Palmerston North, Ne v Zealand, has died of wounds in the New Zealand Stationary Hospital in France. Dr Martin was wounded on the Somme front. One of the leading practitioners of the Manawatu district, Dr Martin had a distinguished record both in peace time and war time. His services during the present war have been particularly valuable, and he was mentioned in despatches for gallantry in tending the wounded under shell fire.

Dr Martin was born in Otago, where his parents still reside. As a young surgeon he first saw active service in the South African war, and received the commendation of Sir Frederick Trevea and other distinguished British surgeons. Some ten years ago, Dr Martin established a practice at Palmerston North, and was senior honorary surgeon of the Palmertson North Hospital. He/ promoted a fund for the establishment of a radium institue for the North Island, and left Auckland in April, 1914, upon" a tour, planned to extend over a year, in America, the United Kingdom, and Europe, in connection with the project. ,

lie was attending a medijbal conference in Scotland when rao war broke out. There wa3 a call for surgeons, and, with other doctors, he hurried to London, and volunteered for six months service. He remain*d with the British Army for eight months, after which he returned to New Zealand for a short time to recuperate. With the exception of an interval of thrse wekes, in which he was stationed at a clearing hospitaLat Bethune, he waß in the firing line from the time he joined the army. Dr Martin was on the staff of the 15th Field Ambulance, which was attached to a battalion formed by the Norfolk, Dorset, Bedford, and Cheshire Regiments, in the sth Division of foe Second Army Corp, under Sir H Smith-Dorien. He landed at Havre with the first reinforcemerts for the British Expeditionary Force, and accompanied it on the last three days of the retreat from Mons. The sth Division shared in the battle of the Maene, and remained on the Aisne till the end of September. Then it was moved to the North of France, meeting the' enemy again at La Eassee. *

In the second week of October, the field anobulancs to which Dr Martin was attached reached Bethune. The brigade which it served was very soon in touch with the enemy at La Baasee, and arrangements vvers made for the recepFion of''the wounded in Bethune. Dr Martin later spent thi-68 weeks in tba trenches at Ypres, and witnessed the desperate charge of tha Prussian Guards. \ The arduousness of the campaign told on~Dr Martin, and in June, 1915. he came to New Zealand to recuperate. Shortly after his return he was appointed a member of the commission which sat in July and August to investigate the causes of the sickness at Trantham Camp. Dr Martin returned to the front as captain on the staff of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade Field Ambulance, which left Auckland in February, 1916. Dr. Martin had a name for despising personal risks. lie was prticularly interested in "advanced dressing stations;"' and at last advice was in one of thesafa brick kiln, which was constantly under fire. He hiniasif—now major—wrote: "We are surrounded by Btitish batteries, and the Germans are constantly trying to get at them. One end of our building is under observation from a German sniper. One man was nearly scuppered there last week. Three steps from tb*f corner there is a commujiiction trench running across a field in a zig-zag fashion to the regimental aid post, wcere the regimental officer lives in a dagout. The wounded from the battalion in action are carried down this trench on stretchers by' our ambulance bearers, and the reinforcements and relieving troops going to the front trench also use this as the foot path. When a wounded man is brought into our dressing station we examine him and do any emergency first aid and send him off by a motor ambulance to the field ambulance headquarters some-short distanca back." One of Dr Martin's brothers is Mr Eilas Martin, solicitor, of Auckland,, and late of Te KuitU Another brother is the manager in Christchruch for Wright, Stephenson and Co. ~- '