Submitted by admin on April 22, 2009 - 23:10
HERCUS, Sir Charles Ernest, D.S.O., O.B.E.
(1888– ).
Emeritus professor of medicine.
A new biography of Hercus, Charles Ernest appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.
Charles Ernest Hercus was born in Dunedin on 13 June 1888 and educated first at Christ-church Boys' High School and later at Otago University where he qualified in dentistry and then in medicine. In the First World War he served with the New Zealand Forces at Gallipoli and in Palestine and was mentioned in dispatches on five occasions. He was professor of bacteriology and preventive medicine at Otago University from 1922 to 1959 and dean of the Medical School from 1937 to 1959. Sir Charles has held several distinguished appointments, viz., on the Board of Health, the Town Planning Board, the Medical Research Council, the Dental Council, the Council of Physical Education, and the Council of Otago University. He has published extensively in the subjects in which he has specialised, and is now emeritus professor. He was knighted in 1947.
In 1917 he received the D.S.O. and in 1919 was awarded the O.B.E. In 1964, in conjunction with Sir Francis Gordon Bell, he published The Otago Medical School Under the First Three Deans.
