Early Life and A Fateful Journey
George Cleghorn was born in Calcutta, Bengal, India, on 1 September 1850, the son of Susan Price and her husband, James Cleghorn, a harbour pilot. He received his formal education in England at Bedford Modern School. He went on to study medicine and surgery at the prestigious St Thomas's Hospital in London, qualifying as MRCS (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons) and LSA (Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries) in 1872. He would later be awarded the degree of MD by the University of Durham in 1891.
After a period as a house surgeon at St Thomas's, he decided to emigrate.
Appointed surgeon-superintendent of the New Zealand Immigration Department in 1876, his journey was cut short when his ship was wrecked in a storm in the Bay of Biscay.
Undeterred, he returned to England and enlisted as ship's doctor on the Brodick Castle, finally arriving in Auckland in March 1876. He commenced practice in Blenheim a fortnight later, initially in partnership with the late Dr. Horne.
A Surgical Pioneer at Wairau Hospital
Two years after his arrival, in 1878, he was appointed medical officer at the newly established Wairau Hospital. At Wairau, Dr Cleghorn quickly gained a reputation as a bold and innovative surgeon whose fame as a brilliant practitioner spread throughout New Zealand. He was a progressive doctor who kept abreast of the latest international advances. He championed the sterilisation of surgical equipment in line with the work of Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister, and was one of the first surgeons in the colony to use antiseptics.
His advanced work included what is believed to be the country's first successful appendicectomy. In a high-profile case in 1893, he was called upon to perform a two-stage laparotomy on the Premier of New Zealand, John Ballance, who was mortally ill with chronic bowel obstruction. While the operation provided relief for his final days, Ballance ultimately died from peritonitis. Cleghorn was later criticised for a breach of confidentiality when he published the details of the case in the New Zealand Medical Journal with the patient's name included.
His research interests were broad; he was a pioneer of neurosurgery in New Zealand, investigated the role of uric acid in disease as described by Alexander Haig of London, and followed the American work of W. B. Coley into immunology as a cancer treatment. His standing in the medical community was cemented in 1897 when he was elected the first president of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association.
Confronting Racism to Advance Māori Health
Dr Cleghorn’s character was defined by more than his medical skill. During repeated typhoid outbreaks in the 1890s, he advocated for and established a fever ward to isolate patients with infectious diseases. This became a point of intense conflict in 1899 when he began treating Māori from the Wairau Pā who were suffering from typhoid.
Official policy dictated that Māori from the Pā should be treated at Picton Hospital, and the chairman of the Wairau Hospital Board attempted to reprimand Cleghorn for treating “the natives”.
The board declared it “did not wish to be inhuman” and would accept patients from outside its district, but when the Picton Hospital Board agreed to pay for its patients, it explicitly “declined to pay” for the Māori residents of the Wairau Pā.
In defiance of this and despite “severe and discourteous criticism from the hospital board chairman,” Dr Cleghorn continued to provide them with care. For local iwi, having a doctor who showed empathy and was willing to defy policy and his superiors to treat them was rare and “extra special”. This deep respect would later be demonstrated through significant farewell gifts and heartfelt condolences expressed to Cleghorn's wife upon his passing. Dr Cleghorn resigned from his post at Wairau Hospital not long after the typhoid outbreak. The original Fever Ward building he established survives and was moved to Brayshaw Heritage Park in 2006.
Personal Life and Community Spirit
Beyond his official duties, Dr Cleghorn was known as a kind and benevolent man with a deep interest in public welfare. He became well known for his readiness to treat patients who were unable to pay for his services. His personal life was marked by significant tragedy.
He was married three times: first to Harriet Louisa Mossop on 8 September 1877, at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Picton, with whom he had two sons who both died in infancy before Harriet herself died in 1881. Harriet and their two sons are buried in Omaka Cemetery. He married Annie Browning in 1886; she died from consumption a year later in May 1887, after a union of fourteen months, leaving an infant daughter. On 6 July 1888, at the Church of the Holy Nativity in Blenheim, he married Annie's sister, Helen Browning, with whom he had two children: a son, Max (born 1889), and a daughter, Joan (born 1891).
He was a passionate contributor to civic life, helping establish the Marlborough Cricket Association and a local football club, and contributing to the construction of a gymnasium and swimming baths in Blenheim. A keen sportsman himself, he also owned and trained a number of racehorses.
Final Years and Enduring Legacy
By 1900, Dr Cleghorn was suffering from chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure, forcing him to give up his demanding practice. His departure from Blenheim was met with an outpouring of public affection, described as “the most flattering send-off ever accorded to anyone by the people of Marlborough”.
He was presented with a farewell gift of 300 gold sovereigns, a beautiful illuminated address from local societies, a carved sideboard surfaced with 40 genuine Delft porcelain tiles, and a traditional Māori cloak (kākahu). In 1913, the family sent the cloak to the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, intending it as a loan; however, World War I intervened and the cloak has never returned.
After travelling to England as surgeon of the ship Aotea, he returned to New Zealand in 1901 and practised for a short time in Napier before entering into a partnership with Dr. Christie in Wanganui, hoping to preserve his health by avoiding the rigours of general practice.
The hope was short-lived. On the night of 10 June 1902, shortly after treating a patient, he awoke and told his wife he thought he was dying. He passed away from a brain haemorrhage before medical help could arrive.
Friends in Blenheim telegraphed a request for his body to be returned for burial, but as arrangements had already been made for a private interment, this was not possible. He is buried in Heads Road cemetery, Whanganui. Upon hearing the news, a condolence message was telegraphed from the Wairau Pā to his wife:
We, the natives of Wairau, send our heartfelt sympathy and condolence in your bereavement through the unfortunate death of our loving and faithful friend.
The people of Blenheim, feeling that his memory must be honoured, raised funds by public subscription to erect the memorial band rotunda that stands in Market Place to this day. The illuminated address and the Delft sideboard are now on display in the Marlborough Museum foyer.
