Brian McMahon (New Zealand Army officer)

Born in Dunedin in 1929, Brian McMahon was educated at Otago Boys' High School.[1] He went on to the University of Otago, and is a graduate of its Medical School.[2] He worked part-time as a venereologist in several New Zealand hospitals from 1953.[3]

McMahon began a career in the New Zealand Defence Force in 1966 as resident medical officer at the Waiouru Military Camp.[4] In 1968, he was appointed to run the sexual health services of the Defence Force.[3]

In 1969, McMahon served with the New Zealand forces in the Vietnam War, as part of the 1st New Zealand Services Medical Team.[2] He left Vietnam in 1970,[5] and later served in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Malaysia, the latter occasion as medical officer to the 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment.[6][7] McMahon was appointed director-general of Defence Force Medical Services in 1980 and retired in 1983.[6] During the same period, McMahon served as Honorary Surgeon to the Queen.[2]

After leaving the military, McMahon served as medical superintendent of Wakari Hospital and then Dunedin Hospital. He was also medical officer of health in Otago and Southland, and a senior lecturer at Otago Medical School.[7]

In the 1983 Queen's Birthday Honours, McMahon was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[8] The same year he became an officer of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, being appointed a commander in the same order in 1985 and a knight in 1990.[9][10][11] He is also a knight commander of the Order of St Lazarus.[2]

In retirement, McMahon has continued to mentor medical students.[4] He was appointed to the honorary role of colonel commandant of the Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps in 1992 and held that role until 1995. He was appointed to a second term from 2005 to 2008.[6] McMahon served as life governor of Otago Boys' High School Old Boys' Society from 2000 to 2017 when he voluntarily relinquished the role.[6]

Bong Son hospital, 1969

In 1998, McMahon returned to Vietnam to reopen a hospital at Bong Son that had been destroyed during the war. During the trip he visited the site where a friend and sergeant had been killed by a land mine in front of McMahon.[7]

McMahon is a member of the Leprosy Trust Board Fiji and regularly visits the South West Pacific and South East Asia on missions with the Pacific Leprosy Foundation.[4] He has also helped to raise $3 million for the neurosurgery chair at Dunedin Hospital.[6]

In April 2011, McMahon was awarded the second Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association ANZAC of the Year Award, which was presented to him by the governor-general, Sir Anand Satyanand, at Government House, Wellington.[2][7] He was also appointed the first patron of the University of Otago Medical School Brain Health Research Centre.[2] In 2019, a scholarship was established in McMahon's name for second-year Bachelor of Health Science students at Auckland University of Technology. The $10,000 scholarship was funded by Veterans' Affairs New Zealand and the Ranfurly Veterans Trust, and commemorates New Zealand medical personnel of the Vietnam War.[12] McMahon has five children.[6]