Surgeon-General Michael Thomas Yarr
KCMG (1917) CB (1916) LM (1882) LRCSI LKQCP (1882) FRCS (Irel 1894)
17 Oct 1862 [Cloughjordan Co Tipperary] – 24 Apr 1937 [London]
Surgeon-General Michael Thomas Yarr completed his medical education at the medical school of the Royal Irish College of Surgeons and subsequently in Vienna and Paris.
In July 1882 he passed the professional examination for the licence to practice Medicine and Midwifery of the King and Queen's College of Physicians Ireland.
Service Record
30 Jan 1886 Surgeon-Captain.
1890–1895 Surgeon The 1st Battalion The Coldstream Guards.
1896 Member of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom. Former Chief Clinical Assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital Moorfields. Author of A manual of military ophthalmology.
1895–1900 Seconded for service under the Siamese Government as Physician to the Crown Prince of Siam.
30 Jan 1898 Surgeon-Major.
1900–1901 Served in the South African War, when he took part in operations in the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, and Cape Colony.
1903–1908 Seconded for service on the staff of the Government of Bombay as surgeon to the Governor of Bombay.
Sept 1908 In June 1908, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Thomas Yarr was appointed to the command of the station hospital Ahmednagar, vice Lieutenant Colonel Stapylton Chapman Bates Robinson.
30 Jan 1906 Lieutenant Colonel RAMC.
Jan 1909 Arrived from Aldershot. Officer-in-charge Valletta Military Hospital.
Oct 1909 Left for Dublin, tour expired.
28 July 1914 Start of the Great War.
4 Aug 1914 Britain declares war on Germany.
1914–1918 Served in the Great War as Assistant Director of Medical Services at Gallipoli, where he took part in the landing and in the operations of the 29th Division, and later as Deputy Director of Medical Services of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, and Deputy Director of Medical Services to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force.
1 Mar 1915 Colonel L/RAMC.
Oct 1915 Appointed CB for distinguished conduct in the field in connection with the operations in the Dardanelles.
3 Aug 1916 Temporary Surgeon-General whilst Deputy Director of Medical Services, without the pay or allowance of that rank1.
April 1916 Succeeded Surgeon-General Hayward Reader Whitehead when the later embarked for Salonica. Surgeon General Yarr held the appointment of DDMS (Malta) during the remainder of the war.
1917 Director Medical Services (DMS) Malta.
26 Dec 1917 Major-General.
1918 Director Medical Services (DMS) Malta.
1919 Director Medical Services (DMS) Malta.
Oct 1919 Left Malta. Succeeded by Col McLoughlin George Somers L/RAMC.
1921 Retired. Served on the Board of management of St David's Home for Crippled Soldiers at Ealing, and of the Royal Normal School for the Blind at Norwood.
On 26 December 1921, Major General M T Yarr KCMG CB was succeeded by Brevet Colonel Matthew Henry Gregson Fell FRCS DPH as Inspector of Medical Services attached to the London District.
24 Apr 1937 Remained a bachelor. Died in a nursing home.
Bibliography
- Entry No: 7121. Johnston W. 1917. Roll of Commissioned Officers in the Medical Service of the British Army. Vol I (20 June 1727 to 23 June 1898. Aberdeen, University Press.
- Br Med J (1916), 2 (2902) S61 63 (Published 12 August 1916).
- Obituary British Journal of Ophthalmology 1937, 21: p 333-334.
- Deaths in the services, Br Med J (1937), 1002 (Published 8 May 1937).
- Medical arrangements for the Transvaal. Brit Med J (1899); 2:1048 (14 October 1899).