Elizabeth Gunn

Elizabeth Catherine Gunn (23 May 1879 – 26 October 1963) was a New Zealand school and army doctor and public health official. She was a pioneer in the field of children's health, and was instrumental in the establishment of children's health camps in New Zealand. Biography Gunn was born in Dunedin, the daughter of an ironmonger whose interests in medicine led him to change career initially to pharmacy and then to dentistry. She attended Timaru and Otago Girls' High Schools, and from there went to the University of Otago. After a year at Otago she left for Scotland, completing her medical qualifications at Edinburgh Medical School in 1903, and then taking postgraduate studies in obstetrics at Trinity College Dublin. After completing her studies, Gunn returned to New Zealand, working as a general practitioner in Wellington before joining the school medical service in 1912. From 1915 to 1917, she was a captain in the New Zealand Medical Corps (NZMC), having succeeded in gaining admission to a predominantly male preserve by her formidable force of character: upon initially failing to gain admittance to the NZMC she took her case directly to Prime Minister William Massey, claiming that this snubbing was injurious to her reputation in medical circles. She served during World War I with the NZMC at Trentham and then on the troopship Tahiti. On her return to new Zealand she continued to work at Trentham, but her own health suffered and she came down with a rheumatic condition. During her convalescence Gunn travelled, ending up in Britain in 1917. Here she visited child welfare institutions, and became acutely aware of the problems of child malnutrition. On returning to New Zealand she rejoined the school medical service, serving in the southwestern North Island. During her time in this service, based at Wanganui, she became a much feared but much respected character. Gunn was infamous for her habit of removing children's loose or rotten teeth with a spatula. "The doctor is in the habit of removing portions of decayed teeth by means of the spatula used for depressing the tongue. The doctor refrained from doing this after I had protested" (George Kidson, Headmaster, Kilbirnie School, 6 July 1922).