Distinguished general surgeon and one-time Governor General of New Zealand, Lord Arthur Porritt, briefly outlines a New Zealand medical background and his own first steps towards a medical career at Otago University. Opportunities to study in Oxford and St. Mary's Hospital Medical School London are then discussed, followed by comments on early surgical experience on the firms of Zachary Cope and Warren Low, and as registrar to the remarkable Aubrey Pannett, from whom he developed a lifelong interest in gastrectomy. A discussion of wartime military service follows. This includes reference to leadership of a surgical division in France in 1940, responsibility for a totally tented hospital of over 1200 beds during the N Africa Campaign, and charge of 21 Army Group Medical Services in Montgomery's army at the time of the Normandy Invasion. Conversation now turns to post war consultancies, a growing commitment to breast cancer surgery, and the way in which service to the Royal family developed, through an initial appointment as surgeon to the Duke of York in 1936, one year before the abdication. Service to the Royal College of Surgeons, British Medical Association and Royal Society of Medicine is then reviewed, after which conversation turns to sports interests and a 'lifelong' association with the Olympic movement dating from the Paris Olympics of 1924 at which he took the bronze medal in the 'Chariots of Fire' race. In the final minutes of the interview attention focuses on Lord Porritt's Governor Generalship of New Zealand, from 1967-72, and his subsequent career in the House of Lords. He also mentions the support of his family and the career of his son, environmentalist Jonathon Porritt.
Aubrey Pannett, the Olympic Movement, the 1924 Olympics, Royal College of Surgeons, Royal Society of Medicine, Royal Household/Service as Surgeon.
Administration, General surgery,
vid-174, MSVA_065
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/000431
Porritt, ArthurWalton, John
Learning Resources
Original artefact: 1991 RADAR resource: 2017
London, UK
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