Herbert Gallagher
Herbert William Gallagher FRCS (1917–2007) was a Northern Irish medical professional, politician and World War II Royal Army Medical Corps officer.
He attended Methodist College, Belfast[1] and Queen's University Belfast, where he studied medicine, matriculating in 1939. At the onset of World War II he volunteered for the British Army's Medical Corps.[2]
In 1940, he was travelling from Northern Ireland to England when the ship struck a mine outside Liverpool. Using his medical skills he tended to the casualties. His war service took him to Egypt and India. He married a nursing sister from the same unit. After being demobbed he trained as a surgeon at Belfast City Hospital. After the National Health Service was created, he became a Consultant at Banbridge and Newtownards Hospitals.[3]
Affiliations
- Founder, Ulster Surgical Club
- President, Ulster Medical Society
- Fellow, Royal Academy of Medicine (Ireland)
- Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh)
- Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons (Ireland)
Retirement/death
He retired in 1977, aged 60. He became an Alliance Party councillor and a founding member of Comber Probus Club, which he attended till shortly before his death from throat cancer. He was a widower at the time of his death in 2007.[4]