Major-General John McGhie (1914–1985) was a Scottish-born leading Army psychiatrist, author, former Director of Army Psychiatry and President of the Ministry of Defence Army Medical Board.

Early life and career

John McGhie received his education at the famous Hamilton Academy school from which he matriculated at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, graduating in medicine in 1936. The following year McGhie was commissioned in the

RAMC The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

. Posted to India in 1938, he was subsequently appointed Medical Officer at the British Military Hospital at

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

and served in the Burma Campaign from 1942 to 1945, commanding 47 Field Ambulance. Following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, McGhie achieved his Diploma in Psychiatric Medicine in 1947, subsequently serving as Command Psychiatrist in UK Commands and from 1949 to 1952 as Advisor in Psychiatry to the Far East Land Forces. For the next nine years McGhie worked at the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley as Officer in Charge, Psychiatric Division, and latterly as Officer Commanding the hospital and in 1961 he was appointed Director of Army Psychiatry in the Royal Army Medical College. In 1967 McGhie took up the appointment as deputy director of Medical Services in the

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

and Western Commands before returning, in 1970, to the post of Director of Army Psychiatry as well as being appointed Consultant Psychiatrist to the British Army, with the rank of Major-General. Retiring from the Army in 1976, John McGhie continued work as a consultant psychiatrist to government bodies and was appointed President of the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

Army Medical Board, finally retiring in the year of his death, dying at Lenham, Kent, on 12 September 1985.

Publications

Among Major General McGhie's published works were ''A Survey of Service Psychiatry in the Far East, Endocrine Investigations in Psychiatric Casualty in the Army'' and ''Anxiety State in the Army associated with Overacting Thyroid''.

Awards and honours

John McGhie was

Mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

in 1943; awarded the

Order of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

in 1962; appointed Honorary Physician to H. M.

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

in 1971; awarded the Fellowship of the

Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental health ...

in the following year and invested CB and Commander of the Order of St John in 1976.
BMJ, British Medical Journal 17 July 1976. Major General John McGhie relinquishes post of Honorary Physician to the Queen on his retirement from the Army. Retrieved 2011-06-19

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGhie, John 1914 births 1985 deaths People educated at Hamilton Academy Alumni of the University of Glasgow British psychiatrists British Army major generals British Army personnel of World War II Companions of the Order of the Bath Royal Army Medical Corps officers People from Lenham