Professor Bill Gillespie, receiving his OBE for Services to Medicine at Buckingham Palace, 2007.
Professor William (Bill) Gillespie was a treasured taonga at the University of Otago, Christchurch. As a clinician he was patient-centric and as an educator fondly remembered by his students, colleagues and friends.
Bill, OBE, TD, BSc (Hons), MBChB, FRCSEd, FRACS(Orth), MS, FRCP, was born in Stirling, Scotland, and educated at George Watson’s College for Boys, Edinburgh from 1945 to 1957. He was accepted for medical training at the University of Edinburgh, graduating BSc (Honours in Physiology) in 1961, and MBChB in 1964. He undertook surgical training in Edinburgh from 1968 to 1972, during which time he married Lesley, who would be his life-time nomadic companion.
During his final year of training Bill was offered a one-year exchange job as Tutor Specialist at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital. Accompanied by Lesley and 15-month-old son Peter, they undertook the first of many moves around the world. He later recalled that “people were welcoming and friendly, and compared with the UK, New Zealand seemed a more equal society. It was a memorable experience”.
Returning to Edinburgh in 1974 he was appointed Orthopaedic Consultant with a part-time Senior Lecturer’s role. One day his anaesthetist, Murray Carmichael, told Bill that a Red Cross surgical team consisting of himself, a physician and four nurses were due to depart for Angola the following week to treat casualties of the civilian war – but that they still needed to enlist a surgeon in order to go. Bill’s conscience was pricked and, after checking with Lesley, he joined the team for six weeks. His first case was an obstetric emergency; fortunately, he had hastily brushed up on some obstetrics before departure. As an orthopaedic surgeon however, he was better prepared to treat the horrific injuries in civilians, adults and children resulting from their standing on land mines.
Alongside his professional life Bill had a long involvement with the Territorial Army (Army Reserve). He went from the school Cadet Force to the Edinburgh University Officers Training Corps (OTC) taking a place in the Infantry sub-unit, as there was, surprisingly, no medical unit. As a medical student he was exempt from National Service but chose to undergo Infantry Basic Training with the Seaforth Highlanders at Fort George, Inverness-shire, along with people doing their National Service – something he later described as a formative experience. He was later a Lieutenant in the Royal Scots (TA), subsequently returning as a Captain to command the infantry subunit of the OTC, where he met Lesley. Returning to Edinburgh in 1974 he took up command of a Field Ambulance unit (RAMC) in Dundee and was subsequently awarded the Territorial Decoration for 12 years’ service in the Territorial Army.
In early 1977 the position of Senior Lecturer in Orthopaedic Surgery at the recently opened University of Otago, Wellington Clinical School of Medicine was advertised. Attracted to the role both professionally and socially, Bill applied, was appointed, and the family decided to emigrate to New Zealand. He became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (Orthopaedic Surgery) in 1977, and in 1979 submitted his thesis “Acute haematogenous osteomyelitis in the antibiotic era” for the degree of Master of Surgery, University of Otago. This became one of Bill’s major research interests over the next two decades, along with studies relating to the long-term outcomes of joint replacement, and the systematic review of methods for treating musculoskeletal injuries.
With no academic Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Christchurch campus, Bill’s next move was a logical one. In 1980 he applied and was accepted for the position of Foundation Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Otago’s Christchurch School of Medicine, with a joint clinical role as Head of Orthopaedic Services for the North Canterbury Hospital Board.
Christchurch Hospital’s orthopaedic training programme had been recently disestablished, so Bill rapidly introduced a new and robust programme which became highly regarded and continues to flourish. He formalised undergraduate teaching and combined orthopaedics and rheumatology, developing new relationships with his rheumatology colleagues. In collaboration with rheumatologist the late Dr Barrie Tait, he developed the Musculoskeletal Diploma which continues to this day.
Bill was passionate about equity of care for his patients. He divided the acute and elective orthopaedic service between both Christchurch Public and Burwood Hospitals to better protect the elective service from the rapidly increasing demands of trauma - an inspired decision which continues to benefit patients today.
Professor Bill Gillespie and wife Lesley.
Alongside Auckland-based Professor Harley Gray he was responsible for formalising the referral of musculoskeletal tumour patents two specialist centres, one in Christchurch and one provided by Harley at Middlemore Hospital. This resulted in a more unified and multidisciplinary approach, improving patient survival outcomes.
Bill was respected in Christchurch as an excellent clinician, teacher and mentor to his students and a champion of social justice for his patients. A keen runner, he often jogged around Burwood Forest during lunch breaks with various hospital registrars, a tradition which remains for some.
Bill always discussed potential job applications or relocations with wife Lesley. Having been brought up in an Army family she was used to moving frequently, but when Bill was offered the Chair at the University of Dundee in the mid-1980s they both decided it wasn’t a good time to move older son Peter, who was in high school, or preschooler Ian, born in Christchurch.
However, with the children a little older, Bill and the family headed to Australia in 1989 for a position as the first Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery and Director of Orthopaedic Services at the John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, New South Wales. With its focus on problem-based learning, early clinical experience, and the addition of personal qualities to student selection, the Newcastle programme was innovative: “I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that it changed the face of both Australian and, later, New Zealand, undergraduate medical training. This move determined that the rest of my career would move in an educational direction,” Bill recalled.
In 1993 the family returned to Scotland, with Bill now appointed the George Harrison Law Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Edinburgh University, leaving son Peter behind at university in Australia. While in Edinburgh he changed the management of paediatric trauma, making orthopaedic consultants (himself included) “on call” at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
In 1995 he established the editorial base of the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Injuries Collaborative Review Group, thus beginning seventeen years’ involvement with the Cochrane Collaboration, eleven as Co-ordinating Editor of that Group, a further six years as an editor and author of systematic reviews.
Lesley recalls it wasn’t so much a case of Bill getting “itchy feet” with all these career moves; rather, in many cases he was approached and invited to apply for positions. When they moved to Edinburgh she recalls wondering if another move might yet be on the cards, but that Bill reassured her, saying “people might not want to employ a professor my age”. However, Lesley says four years later there was literally a knock on the door.
“Someone from the Dunedin School of Medicine, on holiday in Britain, had been charged with the task of visiting Bill and inviting him to apply for the position of Dean of the Dunedin School of Medicine,” Lesley recalls.
This was too tempting an offer to ignore and apply he did, was duly appointed, and the family happily returned to New Zealand in 1998.
Bill retired from operating at this point in his career, but still completed a weekly fracture clinic at Oamaru Hospital, which he greatly enjoyed. With his previous experience in the Territorial Army (and Edinburgh University Officers’ Training Corps specifically), he was delighted when appointed Colonel Commandant of the Otago University Medical Company, a position he held until 2022. As Dunedin Medical School Dean Bill continued to be innovative, amalgamating nine small clinical departments into four larger ones, and fostering closer co-operation between the School of Medicine and Dunedin Hospital. Bill’s office was relocated to the hospital itself – which he felt made a tremendous difference to the way the two organisations interacted. He also served as senior medical advisor on the board of Healthcare Otago.
Bill was then invited to contribute to a proposal for a new medical school based at the Universities of Hull and York in the UK. In doing so he drew upon his experience working across all three campuses at the University of Otago as well as Newcastle, NSW. With the bid successful, he was invited to apply for the post of Founding Dean of the Hull York Medical School (HYMS) and was duly appointed.
In 2002 Lesley and Bill returned to the UK yet again, leaving younger son Ian at university in Dunedin. When Bill arrived, there were just two employees appointed by the founding Board, but by September the next year an innovative medical school was in place with 1100 applicants for the first intake of 130 students. In June 2006 a new Teaching and Learning Centre at York Hospital was named The Gillespie Building in Bill’s honour. At the opening, the then Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, spoke of Bill as an exceptional founding dean adding, “one can’t underestimate people who gain influence through a modest, self-effacing demeanour”. Setting up a new medical school from scratch was a monumental task and, drawing on all that had gone before, a fitting pinnacle to Bill’s career.
In 2007 he was awarded an OBE for Services to Medicine at Buckingham Palace, presented by the then Prince Charles. The Prince of Wales exchanged a few polite words with each candidate. Bill was expecting to be asked about the new Hull York Medical School, but the royal was keener to hear about his experiences with the Red Cross in Angola.
At the end of his career Bill also received several honorary degrees: Doctor of Science from the University of Aalborg, Denmark (2006) and the University of Hull (2007), and Doctor of the University from the University of York (2007).
He retired from full time employment at the end of 2006, returning to Dunedin, where he continued part-time employment as an Emeritus Professor with the University of Otago as Assistant Director with the Medical Education Group, Dunedin School of Medicine from December 2008 to December 2009; as a Professional Practice Fellow for the Faculty of Medicine from August 2011 to June 2014; and as a Member of the Human Research Ethics Committee, University of Otago, January 2010 to June 2016.
Bill had a life-long interest in history, and during his “retirement” enjoyed organising, and occasionally presenting, at the medical history meetings of the Otago Medical School Alumnus Association.
In November 2016 he and Lesley retired to Waikanae to be closer to their sons and families. Bill’s health deteriorated more recently, and he was cared for at Millvale Lodge Lindale on the Kāpiti Coast. He passed away peacefully on 8 November 2024.
We are indebted to Lesley for her contribution to this tribute to Bill. He will be sadly missed.
Professor Gary Hooper, Head of the Department of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch