Roderic Alley reviews Frontline Surgeon: New Zealand medical pioneer Douglas Jolly by Mark Derby for New Zealand International Review:
‘Born in Cromwell, Otago in 1904, Doug Jolly was a battlefield surgeon who served with distinction in both the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. What he achieved during those armed conflicts provided a template for subsequent emulation by British, American and Commonwealth frontline surgical practice. This he did with tenacity, innovation and the organisational leadership that built widespread respect and admiration among fellow field personnel and wounded combatants. As a student in London in the 1960s, and through longstanding family connections, this reviewer knew Doug Jolly and a close circle of friends that included the Reverend Donald Grant and his wife Irene. All three were strong internationalists subscribing to principles of Christian Socialism.
The Grants were in Otago when Jolly was undergoing medical studies, their influence upon him shared by others that included Horace Belshaw and outstanding mathematician and First World War veteran Alexander Aitken. Another formative influence was Gordon Bell, Otago University’s professor of surgery, and recipient of a Military Cross for his treatment of the wounded at the Somme.
After graduating in 1929, Jolly gained a good grounding of surgical experience at Wellington public hospital before departing to London three years later for further postgraduate training. Into the troubled 1930s, Jolly moved in circles increasingly alarmed at the future civilian costs of armed conflict, in particular from aerial bombing. They included First World War veterans, in particular Tom Wintringham, who became a life-long friend. Italy’s 1935 invasion of Abyssinia was followed, a year later, by the Spanish army’s attempts to topple the narrowly elected Popular Front Republican government. Despite approaching final medical examinations, Jolly decided at the end of 1936 to join the volunteer British medical unit of the International Brigade in Spain.
Particularly well depicted in this account is Jolly’s extraordinary two-year record of commitment in Spain involving not just manifold surgical operations, but related organisational improvisation. Over that period he treated over 4000 wounded, which included a remarkable total of 1000 abdominal procedures. Medical units of the International Brigade comprised a diversity of surgical skills, languages and assumptions about appropriate orders of hierarchy and priority.’
Read the rest of the review here.
