Lieutenant Colonel Sir James Sands Elliott (28 May 1880 – 26 October 1959) was a New Zealand doctor, editor, medical administrator and writer. He was born in

Randalstown Randalstown is a townland and small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, between Antrim and Toome. It has a very prominent disused railway viaduct and lies beside Lough Neagh and the Shane's Castle estate. The town is bypassed by the M22 ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, Ireland, on 28 May 1880. He was educated at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin *Wellington College, Wellington, New Z ...

and spent a year at the

University of Otago Medical School The Dunedin School of Medicine is the name of the School of Medicine that is based on the Dunedin campus of the University of Otago. All University of Otago medical students who gain entry after the competitive Health Sciences First Year prog ...

. His father sent him to the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

to complete his medical course. As a senior student he served with the medical corps in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

from 1899 to 1902. Graduating

MB ChB Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

in 1902, Elliott returned to New Zealand the following year and was the first house surgeon at Wellington District Hospital. He then began a surgical and general practice at the hospital, serving also as honorary surgeon. On 12 December 1905, at

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, he was married by his father to Annie Allan Forbes from Edinburgh; they were going to have five children. In 1912 Elliott took the Edinburgh MD degree. In 1914 he wrote a book on Greek and Roman medicine. In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Elliott was a lieutenant colonel in the New Zealand Medical Corps (NZMC), and was CMO on the second and third voyages of the New Zealand Hospital Ship '' Maheno''; which he described as "like an oven" as she was designed for the Tasman not the Mediterranean. He caused a stir by sending a telegram to the Defence Department, asking whether the ''Maheno''s captain was subordinate to him. The reply was that the captain had the final say. Elliott became a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1926, and in the following year, a foundation fellow of the College of Surgeons of Australasia. In the 1936 King's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

, for public services. Elliott was involved with the

Order of St John (chartered 1888) The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of ...

and in 1955 was promoted to Bailiff Grand Cross of the Order of St John.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, James 1880 births 1959 deaths New Zealand surgeons New Zealand writers People from Randalstown New Zealand Knights Bachelor Irish emigrants to New Zealand (before 1923) New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Wellington College (New Zealand) University of Otago alumni Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Medical School New Zealand medical administrators 20th-century New Zealand medical doctors New Zealand Army officers New Zealand military doctors New Zealand military personnel of World War I 20th-century surgeons