James Stuart Church
Date of birth / Date established
Circa 1899
Date of death / Date closed
15 May 1986
Place of birth / Place established
Place of death / Place closed
Person/Corporate type
Individual
Biography
James Stuart (Jim) Church was born in Naseby where his father was in medical practitioner. He received his schooling as Waitaki Boy High School and he graduated in 1922 from the University of Otago Medical School. After a locum at Balclutha he came to Opunake where his appointment to the cottage hospital saw the beginning of many years service to the Taranaki District Health Board. In 1928 he moved to New Plymouth, where under the tutelage of Charles Burns and while working in the laboratory of the New Plymouth Hospital he completed a thesis on white blood cells and gained his MD in 1931. Throughout his many years in New Plymouth he managed a successful general practice. Alongside this, he worked part-time in anaesthetics for the Taranaki Hospital Board for 50 years.
