Eric Trump reviews Frontline Surgeon: New Zealand medical pioneer Douglas Jolly by Mark Derby for Landfall Review Online:
‘‘It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it’.
—General Robert E. Lee, after the Battle of Fredericksburg
The flames of war have, for some, fired innovation, passion and purpose, even as they consume communities and sometimes nations. The New Zealand surgeon Douglas Waddell Jolly seems to have been someone who revelled in the transformative experience of battle, someone energised by the urgent and precarious moments he lived through in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Jolly was an inspirational figure and should have earned lasting fame for his pioneering medical service in both wars. His companions in Spain referred to him as ‘the best surgeon we had’ and ‘the most important volunteer to come from the British Commonwealth’. The world-renowned British surgeon Gordon Gordon-Taylor declared that ‘no surgeon of any race’ had done more abdominal surgeries than Jolly. In fewer than two years in Spain, Jolly treated more than 4000 wounded and performed nearly 1000 abdominal operations, often working by candlelight in caves or unused train tunnels.
Yet, as his comrades in arms went on to be knighted or pursue successful careers in medicine, Jolly was quietly forgotten. Only in 2018 was a small plaque commemorating Jolly unveiled at his grandfather’s store in Cromwell. One of the greatest surgeons in New Zealand medical history is not listed in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. In Douglas Starr’s seemingly comprehensive history, Blood: An epic history of medicine and commerce, Norman Bethune, a Canadian celebrity-surgeon, is given four pages, while Douglas Jolly, who was at least as innovative a wartime surgeon as Bethune, is referred to once and listed in the index as merely ‘Dr. Jolly’. Though Jolly’s contributions to surgery and wartime medical strategy are invaluable and evident in accident and emergency departments today, his reputation has remained obscure.
Until now, that is. Wellington author Mark Derby has resuscitated Douglas Jolly in his superlatively readable and scrupulously researched book, Frontline Surgeon. His purpose in writing the book was simple: ‘Jolly’s wartime reputation deserves to be restored, albeit posthumously, to the historical record’. But in telling Jolly’s compelling story, Derby also unspools narratives of military medicine and history.
Jolly was born in Cromwell in 1904 and graduated from the University of Otago Medical School in 1929. He left for London in 1932 to obtain specialist qualifications in surgery. However, once he learned physicians were needed in the Spanish Republican Army Medical Service, he broke off his studies. Jolly, a member of the Student Christian Movement, the oldest Christian organisation in Great Britain, believed Christianity could steer society toward socialism. In a letter published in News Sheet, the bulletin of the Christian Left, Jolly predicted, ‘the conflict between Fascism and Democracy in Spain may decide the fate of Europe and the world for many years to come’. He explained that as a Christian he needed to be on ‘the side of those who extend the brotherhood of man’. And so, he set off for Spain, beginning what would become seven years of combined service as a military surgeon.’
Read the rest of the review here.
