MacDonald Wilson Collection

Dr Donald MacDonald Wilson (MC, OBE) was one of Wellington’s most notable medical officers of the first half of the 20^th century. He was born in Wellington in 1882 and was educated at Wellesley College and Wellington College. After receiving exceptional marks at high school, he gained admittance to the famous medical school at Edinburgh University where he graduated with a Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery in 1911. During the First World War he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in France and Mesopotamia (in what is today Iraq) for which he was awarded the Military Cross. Returning to NZ in 1917 he first worked with a traveling medical board but his evident flair for hospital management honed through his years of military service saw him appointed the following year to the senior role of Medical Superintendent (what today would be termed the Chief Executive Officer) at Southland Hospital. In 1922 he transferred to become Medical Superintendent at Wellington Hospital, a position he held until 1928 when he was appointed Honorary Surgeon, a rare title awarded for his outstanding contribution to the field. He returned to hospital management during the Second World War when he acted as Superintendent to the military casualty hospital established on Aotea Quay for troops returning from the fields of conflict for which he was awarded an O.B.E in 1946. MacDonald Wilson maintained a strong interest in Wellington’s past and was tasked with writing the centennial history of Wellington Hospital in 1947. The resulting book has also been digitised on this platform and can be viewed here.

Over a number of years he also collected several hundred historic photos of Wellington which he studiously mounted into albums. These ranged from items copied from secondary sources through to original vintage prints taken directly from plate negatives.  In 1950 he gifted these albums to the Wellington Central Public Library and it is these which form the basis of this collection. He remained living in Wellington in retirement until his death on 11 November 1966 at the age of 84.

Portrait of Donald McDonald Wilson taken during the First World War courtesy of Archives New Zealand, R24184860