Thomas Valintine

Valintine was born in Westhampnett, Sussex, England, in 1865, and was educated at Marlborough College, Wiltshire. He became a medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and later qualified as a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecarie (LSA).[1] Apothecaries provided most medical services to lower- and middle-class people outside London.[2]

Valintine emigrated to New Zealand in 1891. One of his legs was amputated after a horse riding accident in 1894. He traded the rigours of horseback-riding backblocks medicine for the less physically demanding role of public health official after his presentation on artificial limbs at the 1901 annual meeting of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association. He was New Zealand’s first district health officer and quickly rose to the position of assistant chief health officer by 1902.[1]

For the next three decades, Valintine was a public health officer. He is credited for opening the first tuberculosis annex at the New Plymouth Hospital in 1905. In 1909 he became chief health officer. In 1915 during the First World War, he became director of military hospitals. After the war, he returned to civilian service as director of general of health until his retirement in 1930. He is credited for the statement, "It is better policy to teach people to live healthily and to prevent disease than it is to treat them as irresponsible units for whom care has to be provided". This ethos drove the department's campaigns to reduce maternal mortality. He died at Wanganui on 30 August 1945.[1]

Valintine was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1919 King's Birthday Honours for his services during the First World War.[1]