Tuesday, January 1, 2013 | By: rudi butt

Dr. Sze Tsung-sing , The Man From WHO





Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Sze Tsung-sing 施正信
The Man From WHO



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b. January 23, 1909 Shanghai; graduated from Medhurst College 麥倫書院, Shanghai (1924); enrolled in the Peking Union Medical College 協和醫學院 (1924) but did not attend college due to out break of civil war; admitted to HKU with two scholarships (1925) for a six year medical program; M.B., B.S. (1931), Hon. D.Soc.Sc. (1997), HKU; D.T.M.&H. (1936), D.P.H. (1937), University of London; Dr.P.H. (1938), Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health; Surgical Assistant (1931), Resident Internal Medicine (June to December, 1931), Hong Kong Government Civil Hospital; went to Shanghai to provide medical relief service (January to February, 1932); Assistant Resident Internal Medicine, Peking Union Hospital (1932-1933); Assistant in Medicine, HKU (1933-1935); while in London in 1936, went to Berlin and served as the ROC team physician at the Eleventh Olympic Games; general staff, HQ, Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps. (1938- August 1942); Professor and Chair of Department, Public Health, Guiyang Medical College (1944); Head of Medical and Health Agency, Guiyang (1944); Head of Health Department, Guizhou (1945); Head of National Health Agency (1946), based in Nanjing; Head of Healthcare Department under the National Health Ministry (1947); Professor, Social Medicine, HKU (1950-1952), the department was established in 1950 with Prof. Sze as its first professor, also Prof. Sze was the first HKU graduate to be offered a professorship; Medical Officer, Social and Occupational Health, World Health Organization (July 1952-1966), based in Geneva; resigned from WHO (1966) after being accused of being a threat to the national security of Switzerland and was named persona non grata by the Swiss Government; returned to China in 1966 and was caught up in the Cultural Revolution; Foreign Affairs Department, Ministry of Health (1972-1975); Executive Director (1975), Vice President (1980), China Medical Association; founded the China Medical Journal, China’s first technical journal in English; member, National Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (1978-1987); married to Wang Chunjing 王春菁 (February 2, 1941); Photo caption: October 1953 photo of Professor and Mrs. Sze (second right) at a WHO reception.


Dr. Philip Bernard Chenery Ayres, The Last Colonial Surgeon

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Philip Bernard Chenery Ayres
The last Colonial Surgeon (1873-1897)

Philip Ayres
b.July 13, 1840 Oxfordshire – d. October 12, 1899 Kent; son of Philip Burnard Ayres (M.D., London; Chief Medical Officer of the Civil Hospital, Mauritius; lecturer in chemistry at Charing Cross Hospital); M.R.C.S.Eng; M.L.R.C.P.Edin; government medical officer posted in Mauritius and India; arrived in Hong Kong (November 1873) to take up the position of Colonial Surgeon and Inspector of Hospitals (and would become the longest serving Colonial Surgeon – twenty four years); the following establishment were under the purview of the Colonial Surgeon: Police, Troops, Government Civil Hospital, Tung Wah Hospital, Victoria Gaol, Lock Hospital, Health of the Colony, and Sanitation, the Lunatic Asylum was added in 1884 when it as established; annual salary GBP600, allowed to carry on private practice whilst holding the public office aiming to make up the difference of GBP200 ( Ayres had asked for GBP800 per year); oversight the opening of the Government Civil Hospital; instituted the nursing staff of trained nurses from the London Hospital (1889); played a pivotal role in fostering a higher standard in sanitation including institutionalized the Sanitary Board (1883); handled the epidemic of Plague (1894); Worshipful Master of the Hong Kong Masonic Order, Officer of the District Grand Lodge of China; health began to fail in 1895; home leave (1896, this is the first and only home leave Ayres had ever took since arriving in 1873); retired (1897); died two years later at the age of 59; wrote in his last report before retiring, "What all my reports could not do the epidemic has done.", referring to the drastic improvement in sanitation standard following the epidemic; after his retirement, the position of Colonial Surgeon was changed to Principal Civil Medical Officer.

Annual Salary of some government officials in 1875 (in GBP)

Chief Judge
2,500
Puisne Judge
1,700
Attorney General
1,000
Postmaster General
900
Registrar General
800
Captain Superintendent of Police
800
Superintendent of the Gaol
700
Colonial Surgeon
600

(It will be interesting to find out why the Postmaster General was so generously paid...)



 

Dr. Charles Robert Hager, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Baptizer

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Charles Robert Hager 喜嘉理
Dr. Sun Yat-sen's baptizer

Qualifications:

Clergyman and physician; b.October 27, 1851 – d.1917 Claremont, California; M.D., D.D.; a German born in Switzerland who moved to the United States and was naturalized as a US citizen; Congregationalist 美國公理會 minister sent to Hong Kong as medical missionary in 1883, Hager was chosen because he had some experienced with the Chinese while working in San Francisco; established China Congregational Church 公理會佈道所綱紀慎會堂 soon after arriving Hong Kong at No. 2, Bridges Street; together with devoted Christian 溫清溪 established day and evening (English) schools within the church premises; at one time worked for the Hong Kong Missionary Association; baptized Dr. Sun either at the close of 1883 or early in 1884, also baptized at that time was Dr. Sun’s good friend and later a dear revolution comrade Lu Hao-tung 陸皓東 (b.1868-d.1895), following the baptizium, Dr. Sun resided at the living quarters provided by Hager in the church for about two years; Hager was said to have encouraged and recommended Dr. Sun to pursue medical studies as a matter of course, including an introduction for Dr. Sun to enroll at the medical school in Canton that was attached to the Pok Tsai Hospital 博濟醫學堂 run by medical missionary John G. Kerr; after resided in Hong Kong and China for twenty seven years, returned to the United States due to ill health (1910); first wife, Lizze, nee Blackman, who came to Hong Kong and China with Hager, but died in the California; second wife, Marie, nee Von Rausch, A.B.C.F.M., who came to China as missionary of the Basel Mission, married Hager on December 13, 1986, opened first kindergarten in South China, died November 22, 1918, in Claremont, California; children of Marie and C.R. Hager: Robert, Elsie and Morrison Hager
 

Dr. Lunn & Hong Kong's First Autopsies

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Dr. [ ] Lunn
Pathologist who preformed Hong Kong’s first autopsy

The first autopsy done in Hong Kong was on a woman named Nga Lok Po who died suddenly causing her relatives to suspect she had been poisoned. The inquest was held on August 15, 1842 and Lunn, Hong Kong's first pathologist, identified cause of death as a 'visitation of God'. The second autopsy he performed was related to traumatic injury. On August 10, 1842, 40-years-old house painter of Canton Bazzar, Ho Wai, was engaged in an argument-turned- fracas with Ah Nam, his partner who demanded arrears of wages. They went into a house with no one inside to have the matter settled. Ho came out moment later bleeding copiously from the neck and said before he died that he had been struck by Ah Nam. Lunn identified the neck wound as the cause of death and opined it was done with a knife or chopper. The jury reached a verdict of willful murder. Ah Nam, the murderer, however was no where to be found. The Rev. Lewis Shuck, the editor of the Friend of China, confirmed that this was Hong Kong's first murder case. In his column, he said, “This is the first case of murder on the island. The people are generally so peaceful and non-contentious that there must be some extenuating circumstances.” I am of the opinion that Lunn was a military doctor temporarily stationed in Hong Kong

References:
- Friend of China, August 18, 1842

Dr. Henry Holgate, The First Medical Chief

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Henry Holgate
Acting Medical Chief
Qualifications:

Holgate was said to be a surgeon on a merchant ship who went to China in the 1830s. He was one of the first surgeons to work at the British Seaman's Hospital in Whampoa (Huangpu) 黄埔 when it opened in 1836. He was appointed by Charles Elliot, Administrator of Hong Kong, to the position of Acting Colonial Surgeon in August 1841. His first task was to establish a Colonial Surgeon's Department. The appointment was, however, quickly disallowed after Elliot was sacked by Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. I do not know why his appointment remained in a government notice given in the March 31, 1842 issue of Friend of China.

A report on the Canton Register, dated October 12, 1841, cited by the New-York American of February 7, 1842, carried Holgate's comments on health conditions in Hong Kong. Might this be Holgate's only official act as the Acting Colonial Surgeon?
"Macao had suffered much from sickness, many of the inhabitants and Chinese having fallen victims to a kind of influenza which was travelling about.

The accounts of sickness at Hong Kong are contradicted. A Mr. Henry Holgate, writing from Hong Kong, under date of the 4th, states that there is no malaria, and that health of the troops has been gradually improving, not any having been ordered on board of the transports. The crews of vessels are very healthy, and in a population of 12,000 Chinese, there have been but 10 deaths in the last four months.”
After his short tenure as a medical official in Hong Kong, Holgate returned to his old job in Whampoa and became the head of the British Seaman's Hospital on November 28, 1842. He moved to Macau in 1849, and went back to Whampoa in 1851. There was a company existing in Macau in 1842 went by the name of Holgate & Co., which was a ships' agent. Has this to do with Holgate, I have no idea. Henry Holgate was listed as a member of the Chinese Medico-Chirurgical Society (founded on May 13, 1845) in 1846.

References:
- The Chinese Repository, 1836-37, 1842, 1849.
- Europe in China: the History of Hong Kong from the beginning to the year 1882, Ernest John Eitel.
- The Friend of China, March 31, 1842.
- Janus, Jardine Matheson Archive [internet].
- New-York American, February 7, 1842.

Dr. George Mackay, A Gilbert Blane Gold Medal Recipient (1851)

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

George Mackay

Qualifications: M.D., University of Glasgow (1835); M.R.C.P., London, (1860)

Mackay (b.dt/unk. – d. April 26, 1879, Wellington, Somerset) was given charge of the medical ship HMS Melville at the end of the Second Opium Ward (1856-1860) and remained till 1865. Melville arrived Hong Kong in 1857 and began its service as a military hospital ship attached to the East Indies Squadron until she was sold in 1873. The proceeds of the sale were used to acquire the Seamen's Hospital, which reopened as the Royal Naval Hospital. Mackay was no stranger to China and Hong Kong, he served as assistant surgeon of HMS Samarang during the First Opium War and was awarded the China Medal 1842 along with twenty other officers and 136 sailors and marines on board. Samarang took part in the capturing of Chuenpee Hill Forts 穿鼻炮臺 on July 1, 1841 and the bombardments of the Bocca Tigris 虎門 on February 26, 1841. In fact, Mackay was never too far away from combats while on sea duties ever since he joined up the Royal Navy right after graduating from Glasgow: surgeon, HMS Bellerophon, bombardment of Odessa, landing at Varna; senior surgeon, HMS Agamemnon (1854), landing at Old Fort, battle of Alma; inspector of transports, bombardment of Sebastopol, capture of Kertch and Yenikale, blockade and fall of Sebastopol; all during the Crimean War. After leaving Hong Kong, Mackay became Deputy Inspector at Royal Hospital Haslar, and Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets. On February 3, 1870, he was appointed Honorary Physician to the Queen. He became Surgeon-Major of Madras Establishment in an unknown year and was promoted to Deputy Surgeon-General on February 26, 1876. He died at home in Wellington, Somerset, from pneumonia on April 26, 1879. The journal Mackay wrote while serving as surgeon on HMS Powerful, “ Medical Journal of HMS Powerful, from 1 October 1849 to 8 March 1851, by George Mackay” won him a Gilbert Blane Gold Medal in 1851. Blane, a Glasgow alumnus himself (M.D. 1778) was the founder of Blane Medals for best Journals by Navy Medical Officers.

There was another George Mackay, M.D., F.R.C.S. Edinburgh, F.S.A.S. (Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland) who existed later than our Mackay (he was still around in 1941, while our Mackay died in 1879), and who might be a descendant of Sir Donald MacKay of Farr. I do not know if the two George Mackay(s) were related. Should be interesting to find it out.

References:
- anglochinesewar42.com [blog].
- The Edinburgh Gazette, February 8, 1870.
- List of the Fellows, Members, Extra-Licentiates, and Licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1872.
- The London Gazette, February 25, 1876.
- Naval Database, Melville, 1817 [internet].
- Proceedings of the Society, April 13, 1908, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
- University of Glasgow [internet].

Dr. William Aurelius Harland And The First Application Of Chloroform Anaesthesia

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

William Aurelius Harland
MD and natural scientist, performed Hong Kong's first practice chloroform anaesthesia

b. 1822 Scarborough – d. September 12, 1858 Hong Kong; University of Edinburgh; came to Hong Kong in 1846 to escape from an unwise marriage (to a servant girl); learned the Chinese language, studied Chinese medicine, collected scientific specimens and worked as a surgeon at the Seamen’s Hospital; performed the first surgical operation in Hong Kong with the use of chloroform (March 8, 1848), the news of which was reported with a great novelty; CMCS Secretary; Colonial Surgeon June 14, 1858 succeeding James Carroll Dempster , Harland himself died within a few months (1858) of taking up the office of Colonial Surgeon (in the colony’s first decade three of its four Colonial Surgeon died in office, it must had been a dangerous profession.); his memorial is in the Hong Kong Cemetery that reads: "Admired for his scientific enquiries, Trusted for his abilities as a physician, and Loved for his qualities as a man"; his brother was Edward Harland, shipbuilder of Belfast, whose company built the Titanic; their father, William, patented a steam road car in 1827, and his work was used in the first steam train, the Rocket, built by his friend George Stephenson; publications: "Records of Washing away of Injuries" (1855), which was an English translation of "The Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified 洗冤集錄 (click to view the full text in Chinese)" also known as "Washing Away of Wrongs", a book on forensic science written by Song Ci 宋慈 in 1247 and is probably the world’s first comprehensive writing about forensic anthropology; a friend of Karl Gutzlaff, a Prussian missionary who aided the proliferation of opium in China; died of malarial fever.

The Hong Kong Government Gazette, June 19, 1858, Notice #55.

Dr. Alexander Anderson, Hong Kong's First Colonial Surgeon

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Alexander Anderson
The first Colonial Surgeon

Anderson (b. April 16, 1809 (or 1810), Selkirk, Selkirk, Scotland – d. May 28, 1857, Jedburgh, Roxburgh) went to Macau in July 1834 (and thence onto Canton) as an assistant surgeon attached to the mission of William John Napier, 9th Lord Napier 律勞卑 (b.1786-d.1834), the first British Superintendent of Trade in Qing China. He was given charge of starting up a hospital ship in Whampoa in the month next following his arrival chiefly to look after British seamen. The hospital ship project was proposed by Thomas Richardson Colledge 郭雷樞 (b.1796-d.1879), head surgeon of the Napier mission who had been living in China since 1827 as surgeon for the British East India Company. The project was stopped before preparations began in earnest amidst growing hostilities between Napier and the government in Canton, which was tasked by the Qing court to handle all foreign diplomatic affairs. Anderson stayed behind in Macau after Napier died in October the same year having achieved nothing for his commission. As a surgeon to the British mission, he assisted British ships which had no surgeons on board at where they anchored either in Lintin (Nei Lingding Island) 內伶仃島 or Kumsing Moon 金星門 to look after sick seamen. In addition, Anderson had frequently assisted in important operations at Ophthalmic Hospital in Canton 廣州博濟醫院, which was established by Peter Parker*, M.D. on November 4, 1835. Anderson was a founder of the Medical Missionary Society in China 中國博醫會 and was elected to the office of Recording Secretary at the society's inaugural meeting on February 21, 1838. He became a vice-president in 1840. When Parker asked him to assist the Seamen's Friend Association by becoming its Macau agent, Anderson agreed and took the office immediately. The association was founded on January 3, 1839 in Canton by seventeen European and American merchants (mostly opium traders and/or shippers), and Protestant missionaries, with the objective to promote the welfare of seamen.

In 1841, Anderson was listed as a surgeon and apothecary, and a partner in the Macao dispensary (medical clinics were called dispensaries in those days), which was established by Colledge. This could possibly be Anderson's first endeavor in the private sector. I found another record (dated August 1841) that showed he was associated as a principal (possibly a partner) in the Canton dispensary. The Canton dispensary was established by Richard Henry Cox, M.D., and another doctor by the name of Bradford before 1836. Cox's name alone, however, was listed in the the Chinese Repository 1836-37 under Canton dispensary. Towards the end of 1842, the dispensary discontinued its operation in Canton and reopened on the first day of 1843 in Hong Kong under the new name of Hong Kong dispensary. The new dispensary was located in the bazaar owned by William Morgan, a Jardine ship captain who later became the Hong Kong agent for Jardine's ships. The Hong Kong dispensary was by then owned by Anderson and another doctor Peter Young*. Anderson and Young were the only men from the medical profession among the 44 British residents in Hong Kong, Macau and Canton appointed by governor Henry Pottinger on June 30, 1843 to be the city's first Justices of the Peace. The Anderson / Young association went further with the opening of the Seamen's Hospital in August the same year. Anderson sat on the hospital establishment committee (along with James Matheson of the princely opium firm, Jardine Matheson, and John Robert Morrison 馬儒翰, son of missionary Robert Morrison 馬禮遜) and it was he who put the entire hospital together. Young became responsible for the day-to-day running of the hospital and had also provided free consultations during the week for one hour each day (8-9am). Both Anderson and Young were appointed trustees of the hospital. The Seamen's Hospital (1843-1873) was located in Wanchai, where the Ruttonjee Hospital 律敦治醫院 is currently situated - between Wanchai Road and Queen's Road East.

1843 had been a very good year for Anderson, he reached the pinnacle of his professional life on October 1, the date when he was appointed by governor Pottinger the first Colonial Surgeon in Hong Kong, passing Dr Charles Alexander Winchester by. Winchester had been an assistant colonial surgeon. The appointment was however very short-lived since the position was created without prior authorization from the Home government. I should believe that London probably wasn't overly concerned with who took the office of the colonial surgeon, but was quite uncomfortable with the amount of money being spent on the new colony. So an instruction was given by the Home government to make the position redundant in 1844; Anderson was instead appointed Hospital Surgeon to the Colony, a position nothing short of baloney as the government ran no hospital in the Colony. Anderson resigned the following month for health reasons and in 1846 (calculated) returned home to Selkirk where he probably practiced medicine together with his father, Thomas Anderson, M.D.. In 1848, Anderson removed to Jedburgh, Roxburgh where he continued to practice until he died in 1857, at the age of 48 (or 47). He was survived by wife, New York-born Elizabeth (Eliza) Post Gillespie [1] and ten children. Anderson and Gillespie were married in Macau probably around 1844. Their first two sons, Graham and Thomas were born in Macau. Thomas Anderson (b.1845-d.1872) later went and lived in the United States; it was uncleared to me whether he went to the U.S. for the purpose to seek out his mother's family. He died in Iowa on August 12, 1872. Another son, Curtis Homes (b.1853-d.1884) also went to the United States and died in Las Vegas in January 1884. Both of them died at very young age.

Born to Thomas Anderson (b.1787-d.1855) and Margaret Scott (b.1787-d.1835), Anderson was a third generation physician. His grandfather Thomas Anderson (Sr.) (b.1751-d.1816) was an army surgeon who had mentored the celebrated explorer Mungo Park. Park (b.1771, Selkrikshire, Scotland – d.1806, Yelwa (Yauri), Nigeria), M.R.C.S.Eng (1793), went to Africa for the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa in 1795 to explore the course of the River Niger. He reached the river on July 20, 1796 and continued to travel as far as Segu (Ségou), where no Westerner had ever been. After returning to England, being quite rich and very famous, Park married Anderson's aunt, Alison (Alice, or Allie) on August 2, 1799. He went back to Africa in January 1805 heading an expedition to follow the Niger to its end. Joining the expedition as second in command was Alison's brother (and Anderson's uncle), who was also named Alexander Anderson. The expedition was met with extremely harsh conditions; Alexander (the uncle) died on October 28, 1805 in Sansanding (near Segu) from illness, and Park was believed to have been drown in the river near Yauri in around January 1806.

[1] Eliza Gillespie (b. July 11, 1819 – d. 1911) was born to a fourth generation immigrant family originated in Scotland, which had rooted in New York since the turn of the Eighteenth Century. She was daughter of David Gillespie (b.1789-d.1824) and Mary S. Post (b.ca.1789-d.bef.1825). She and her sister Elizabeth McDougall Gillespie (b.1814-d.1837) went to join their brother, Charles Van Megen Gillespie (b.1810-d. Unknown) in China in 1830s. Charles ran businesses and lived between Hong Kong, Macau and Canton. He owned a godown (storage house), and ran auction and mercantile businesses at No. 46 Queens Road. Elizabeth McDougall died from illness in 1837 and was buried in Macau. Eliza and Anderson left Hong Kong in 1846; Charles and his family by the end of the following year. Instead of returning home in New York, Charles took his family to San Francisco where they arrived on the brigantine Eagle on February 2, 1848. His arrival somehow turned into a remarkable historical event when latter day historians declared that the three servants (two unnamed men and a woman called Marie Seise -- no one seemed to know her Chinese name; she was once married to a Portuguese sailor named Seise) he brought with him from China, the first Chinese immigrants to the United States. Having settled down in San Francisco, Charles became very busy engaging in a variety of activities: as a notary public and searcher of records, and a real estate broker, in addition to running an importing firm for Chinese goods. He had (in essence but not as a right) a monopoly of the business of examination of wills, and above all else launched a company named Fidelity National that would eventually become Fidelity National Financial. FNF ranked 472 in the 2012 Fortune 500 ranking. Eliza's another brother was the famous U.S. Marine Lieutenant (later Captain, and Major) Archibald Hamilton Gillespie who made his name during the Mexican-American War, which I would not go into details here. Archibald was remembered by the naming of destroyer USS Gillespie (DD-609) and the Gillespie Field airport in El Cajon, California.
References:
- Anglo-Chinese Claendar 1847,Canton: Office of the Chinese Repository, 1847.
- Boddy-Evans, Alistair, Biography: Mungo Park, About.com., People / Places [internet].
- Burke, Bernard, A genealogical and heraldic history of the colonial gentry, Vol. 1, London: Harrison & Son.
- Californian, Number 51, 3 May 1848, p.1.
- The Chinese Repository, 1834-35; 1836-37; 1837-38; 1838-39.
- CNN Money [website].
- Ride, Lindsay and Ride, May, An East India Copmany Cemetery: Protestant Burials in Macao, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1996.
- The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle 1837, Vol. 15 - New Series, London: Thomas Ward & Co.
- Friend of China, January 12; February 23; June 30; July 20; July 27; October 5, Hong Kong, 1843.
- geni.com [internet].
- Interesting Family Trees – Genealogy [internet].
- Janus: Jardien Matheson Archive [internet].
- Johnson, Henry James and Johnson, James (Ed.), The Medico-Chirurgical Review, and Journal of Practical Medicine, Vo. 35, April to September 1841, London: S. Highley, 1841.
-The "New American" Fortune 500, Partnership for a new American Economy,New York City Government. June 2011 [internet].
- NNDB: tracking the entire world, People, Mungo Park [internet].
- rootsweb [internet].
- Shoemaker, Louise E., San Francisco County Biographies: F.A. Rouleau, November 17, 2003. [internet]
- Taylor, Fitch W., The Flagship: or Voyage Around the World, in the United States Frigate Columbia, Vol. 2, New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1840.

Dr. Alfred Green Gayton Tucker - Surgeon of Hong Kong's First Hospital Ship

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Alfred Green Gayton Tucker (1843)
Surgeon of Hong Kong’s first hospital ship, HMS Minden

Alfred G.G. Tucker rose from the medical services of the Royal Navy. He was made Assistant Surgeon on July 12, 1832, and served on HMS Impregnable, and then on HMS Vernon from December 12, 1832 and HMS President from July 16, 1834. Tucker was promoted to Surgeon on November 23, 1841 and was appointed to HMS Minden on the 18th of the following month. He came to Hong Kong on board the Minden on June 7, 1843; the battle ship served as a hospital ship in Hong Kong until 1844, whereupon it became the military stationary ship for the China and India Station. Tucker and all the other medical staff were reassigned in June 1844. Tucker suffered from tuberculosis and died on board Minden on October 10, 1845. D.B. Whipple, Assistant Surgeon on HMS Agincourt was promoted to replace Tucker. A majority of Minden's original medical staff was reassigned to HMS Alligator when it arrived in Hong Kong in 1846 to replace Minden as medical ship.

There was a William Guise Tucker who was appointed Chaplain to the Minden in 1836, and was made Chaplain to the Fleet in 1865. He became the Vicar of Ramsay, Essex on April 3, 1881. The Rev. Tucker was born in Hampstead, Devon, the second son of John Tucker and Mary Ann Britton. I wonder if these two were related.

Tucker was one of the founders of the China Medico-Chirurgical Society (CMCS), which was established in Hong Kong in 1845. He was elected President of CMCS at its first general meeting in May 1845. In his inaugural speech, he had put forward the idea of establishing a medical school to train Chinese students. He said, “...one day to see a medical school established at Victoria... It is only by education that we can expect to remove the deep old rooted prejudices of ages, and in what better manner could the pupils educated at the schools instituted for the Chinese be made useful instruments for introducing the Scriptures among their deluded countrymen.” For a non-clergyman, he was quite eager in spreading the good word.

References:
- "Heal the sick" was their motto: the Protestant medical missionaries in China, by Gerald H. Choa
- The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Kai, by Gerald H. Choa
- The Navy List, 1834, 1840
- Rootsweb
- Straits Times Monthly Summary, for the month of October, 1845

Dr. Lai Po-cheun, First Woman Medical Student at HKU

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Lai Po-cheun 賴寶川
The first woman medical student at HKU

MB, BS, HKU; one of the first three women students admitted to HKU [1] and the only one to read medicine. That was in 1921, one year ahead of Eva Ho-tung 何嫻姿, yet it was Ho-tung, not Lai, who became the first medical student to graduate. In fact, I am still looking to find in which year she finished school. The only records of her I could find were from the year 1939, there she unquestionably was on the favorite list of someone important in the government. She was appointed, in the same instance on May 25, 1939, a Health Officer, the secretary of the Midwives Board and Supervisor of Midwives (to replace Alta Francis Stout who had resigned), and an Inspector of Schools. She was listed as Chinese Lady Assistant Medical Officer for Schools, Medical Department in 1941, and was again appointed as Inspector of Schools.
[1] The other two were Rachel Mary Irving 艾惠珠 and Irene Cheng 何奇姿. Irving was the daughter Edward Alexander Irving 伊榮 who was the sitting (and Hong Kong's first) Director of Education. Irving was admitted to the Faculty of Art, year three, and graduated with a BA degree in 1923. She was Hong Kong's first woman university graduate. Cheng (b. October 21, 904, Hong Kong – d. February 17, 2007, San Diego), nee Ho-tung, was Eva Ho-tung's sister. Cheng received her BA degree in English in 1925 and was the first Hong Kong-born woman university graduate. She went on to become a devoted educator.
References:
- The Hong Kong Government Gazette, June 23, 1939, appointments #501, #502 and #503; May 9, 1941, Appointment #52.
- Lee Hock Guan (Ed.) and Lee Lai To (Ed.), <em>Sun Ya-sen: Nanyang and the 1911 Revolution</em>, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asia Studies, 2011.
- Lee, Vicky, <em>Being Eurasian: Memories Across Racial Divides</em>, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004

Dr. Robert Cecil Robertson, Cheated Death Twice But Not Thrice

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Robert Cecil Robertson

b. December 16, 1889 Kilmarnock - d. August 4, 1942 Hong Kong; son of a glass merchant; M.B., Ch.B., Glasgow University (1914); Captain (temporary commission), R.A.M.C. during WWI and gained a Military Cross; M.R.C.P., D.P.H. (1919), Edinburgh; F.R.F.P.S. (1920); M.D., Glasgow University (1921); Assistant Pathologist, Shanghai Health Department (1925); Henry Lester Research Institute, Shanghai (1929), Head of Division of Pathology; Commissioner, League of Nations anti-epidemic unit No.2 (1930s); President, Shanghai Medical Society;  Professor and head of Pathology Department, professor of bacteriology and pharmacology, University of Hong Kong (1939-1942), succeeding Professor L.J. Davies; held in internment by the Japanese army after the Battle of Hong Kong in the Bacteriological Institute; said to have took his life by jumping from the roof of the Institute on August 4, 1942; member, British Medical Association (1917-1942); gifted painter and photographer; photo on the left: Soochow Watergate, by R.C. Robertson, oil on canvas

Dr. Robrtson cheated death twice in Shanghai. The second time was in August 1937, when KMT army attacked the Japanese flagship in Shanghai and bombs fell disastrously in the International Settlement. Dr. Robertson was officially reported among the 2,000 dead, but his families in Scotland later received a cablegram from him bearing the single word "unharmed". The first incident took place three year earlier and was reported in detail in the British Medical Journal dated March 17, 1934:

All in the Day's Work - Details have now reached this country, through the columns of the Shanghai Times, of the kidnapping and escape from death of Dr. R. Cecil Robertson, head of the division of pathology and bacteriology of the Henry Lester Institute of Medical Research, Shanghai, and a member of the British Medical Association. On January 31st Dr. Robertson left his home in his car for the institute with his chauffeur and the 8-year-old son of his Chinese cook, who was to be vaccinated

Dr. Robertson put up a fierce fight, during which he was twice shot at; appeals for help to Chinese police and bystanders were ignored. Dr. Robertson explained who he was, and his captors appeared surprised and disappointed, but the car continued its course. Resuming the struggle, one of the Chinese was wounded in the hand by his own revolver, the speed of the car slackened, and Dr. Robertson forced open the car door and jumped out, holding the boy. His captors made no further attack upon him, but drove off rapidly and escaped. Dr. Robertson, who is president of the Shanghai Medical Society, owed his life to the failure of a revolver to fire when in contact with his head. He ascribes the incident to an error on the part of the gangsters, who had presumably proposed – to carry off a wealthy Chinese, but mistook the car. He was twice wounded in the war in France, and was awarded the M.C. He went out to Shanghai in 1925, and was at first pathologist to the Shanghai Municipal Council, joining the Henry Lester Institute in 1929.



Dr. Philip Moore, A Prominent Asian Art Collector

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Philip Moore 毛文奇
A prominent Asian art collector

Qualifications: M.B., B.S., HKU (1938); F.R.C.S., University of Edinburgh (ca.1947)

Philip Moore
(Updated February 24, 2013)born Mao Wen-cee  Mao, alias Philip Moore, (b. September 5, 1915, Shanghai – d. 2004, Hong Kong) was the son of a Chinese doctor who practiced in Hawaii. Mao's mother at the time when married to his father was an art student studying in Japan. When attending an English public school in Shanghai, Mao anglicized his surname to Moore (I'll find out the reason for that when I have time). Soon after graduating from HKU, he joined the Chinese Red Cross Relief Corps and went to China to work in the war zones, returning to Hong Kong after the city has fallen to the Japanese. Altogether Mao was with the Red Cross for 6 years (1939-1945). He worked for HKU as resident in Queen Mary Hospital and later at Kowloon Hospital (1950-1955). Thereafter he started his own private practice and finally retired in 1980s. He was a founding member of the Society of Anesthetists of Hong Kong and was elected President of HKCMA (1960-1962).

Mao had a profound interest in Aisan art and has beccome a  prominent collector as well as a scholar in that field. His enthusiasm was clearly manifested by his involvement in the leading organizations promoting Asian art and history: member, Oriental Ceramic Society in London (since 1965); founding President, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong (1974-1977), ; Honorary Advisor, Hong Kong Museum of Art (1974-2004); Chairman, Min Chiu Society 敏求精舍(1969-1971, 1974-1975); Founder and first Chairman (1980-1997), Chairman emeritus (since 1997), East Asian History of Science Foundation 香港東亞科學史基金會.

Mao married Barbara Chu (1940) who became a leading gynecologist in Hong Kong and was appointed an examiner for gynecology in HKU.