Gerrard, William Innes (1929-1939)

updated on March 24, 2014.

HMS Jupiter on voyage to Archangel, 1915. Credit: Naval Ships of the World's Navies.

b. May 13, 1884, Aberdeen, Scotland - d. March 7, 1956. Robert Gordon's College; (Aberd.) MBChB 1909, DPH 1911, MD 1924; MRCP (Lond.) 1925; FRCP; FRCS (Eng.) 1936. RNVR August 1914, promotions: Surgeon Lieutenant 1919; transferred to regular RN, Surgeon Lieutenant Commander; Surgeon Commander August 5, 1926; Acting Surgeon Captain; Surgeon Commander, retired ca.1929; service: Surgeon, HMS Jupiter 1915^[1]; HMS Imperieuse [s.n.]; medical specialist, Royal Naval Hospital, Malta 1925. Hong Kong 1929-39. Recalled to RN 1939, promotions: Surgeon Captain 1939; service: Medical Officer In-Charge, Royal Naval Hospital, Kingseat, Aberdeenshire. Honor:Order of St. Anne, 3rd Class (Russia) November 18, 1915; MID 1919; OBE January 1, 1930; King's Silver Jubilee Medal 1935; King's Coronation Medal 1937; Associate Commander, the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem 1938; CBE June 14, 1945; Chinese Order of the Brilliant Jade 采玉勳章 (ROC); Professor Emeritus, HKU 1950.

HONG KONG 1929. Registered to practice Hong Kong March 18, 1936 through EOP. Honorary Visiting Physician to the Government Civil Hospital October 10, 1929. HKU, Professor of Medicine 1929-39; Dean, Faculty of Medicine (vice Lindasy Tasman Ride) 1933. Medical Board November 25, 1935, three-year term. Nursing Board March 28, 1935 - EOP. Physician in charge of medical treatment of opium addicts in government institutions 1937. JP (unofficial) 1938-41 [time conflict with 1939 departure from Hong Kong]. Handicapped by the loss of an eye from detachment of the retina [s.n.]. Recalled to RN, left Hong Kong 1939.

s/o  Macpherson Grant Gerrard (school teacher) and Mary Anne Laggie. Siblings: 1. subject person.
m. Margaret Ann Stephen 1911 (d/o Alexander Stephen, of Aberdeen). Had issues: two daughters [s.n.], both married Army officers.

Publications: Investigations Into the Pathogenesis of Post-salvarsan Jaundice, with Special Reference to the Use of the Van Den Bergh Tests (1) in Cases of 'overt' Jaundice, (2) in the Detection of Latent Jaundice (Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen, 1924).

[The Assistant Superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Force in the 1920s was a man named William George Garrard. I wonder if the two Gerrards were somehow related.]

[1] I found the following writings from the November 19, 1915 issue of London Gazette:

William Innes Gerrard entered the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in August 1914 and subsequently served in H.M.S. Jupiter at the time of her epic ice-breaking voyage to Archangel in early 1915. As the only port through which Great Britain could supply Russia with munitions and equipment, until the Dardanelles could be opened, it was vital to force a channel through the icefields. In his Official History of Naval Operations in the Great War, Sir Julian Corbett records that, ‘the regular ice-breaker had broken down and the old battleship Jupiter established as one of many records of the War, so far as was known, by being the first vessel that had reached Archangel during February.’ She remained there until the first week of May and later saw service in the Mediterranean. Among those Officers and ratings subsequently decorated by the Czar was Surgeon Gerrard.

Selected bibliography: The British Medical Journal, May 9, 1936, p.967; January 22, 1938, p.170. Dix Noonan Webb [internet]. The Hong Kong Government Gazette, January 24, 1930, #50; March 29, 1935, #264; May 6, 1935, #362; March 20, 1936, #285; November 20, 1936, #918; February 28, 1941, #231; May 2, 1941, #521; May 9, 1941, #558. The London Gazette, November 1915; August 6, 1926, p.5202. Naval History #29373: November 19, 1915; #31516: August 19, 1919 [internet]. Royal College of Physicians › Lives of the Fellows › William Innes Gerrard [internet]. Scottish Medical Service Emergency Committee [internet]. Supplement to the London Gazette, January 1, 1930; June 14, 1945.