James Elliott (medical administrator)

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Lieutenant Colonel Sir James Sands Elliott GCStJ VD (28 May 1880 – 26 October 1959) was a New Zealand doctor, editor, medical administrator and writer. He was born in Randalstown, Ireland (now Northern Ireland). He studied at Wellington College, spent a year at the University of Otago Medical School, and finished his medical training at the University of Edinburgh. As a senior student he served with the medical corps in the Second Boer War (1899–1902). He earned MB ChB in 1902 and returned to New Zealand in 1903 as the first house surgeon at Wellington Hospital; he later ran surgical and general practice there and served as honorary surgeon. He married Annie Allan Forbes on 12 December 1905; they had five children.

Elliott earned an Edinburgh MD in 1912 and, in 1914, wrote a book on Greek and Roman medicine. In World War I he was a lieutenant colonel in the New Zealand Medical Corps and served as Chief Medical Officer on the second and third voyages of the NZ Hospital Ship Maheno; he described the ship as an oven. He caused a stir by sending a telegram asking whether the captain was subordinate to him; the Defence Department replied that the captain had the final say.

He became a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1926 and a foundation fellow of the College of Surgeons of Australasia in 1927. In the 1936 King's Birthday Honours, he was knighted for public services. He was involved with the Order of St John, and in 1955 was promoted to Bailiff Grand Cross. After his death, a stained-glass window of St Luke, the patron saint of surgeons, was installed in Wellington Hospital’s Nurses' Memorial Chapel in 1965. It was designed by Martin Roestenburg and donated by Elliott’s three sons.