Medical Officers
Of the Malta Garrison
Henry Alexander
Gogarty
1833 – 1906

No 533 Surgeon Major Henry Alexander Gogarty

LRCSI (1853) BA (Dubl 1855) MB (Dub 1867) MD (Dubl 1878)

16 June 1833 [Rio de Janeiro] – 18 Apr 1906 [Canterbury]

H A Gogarty
Staff Surgeon Henry Alexander Gogarty 1872 (Hampshire Record Office Ref 170A12W/P/0710jpg).

Surgeon Major Henry Alexander Gogarty studied medicine in Dublin and Paris and qualified as a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland in 1853. He then entered Trinity College, and in 1855, received an Arts degree, and at intervals of about twelve years later, the two degrees in Medicine.

In August 1855 he entered the Army Medical Department as an assistant surgeon. He was posted to India, where he was attached for the greater part of his time to the Rifle Brigade. He served in the Indian Mutiny. He was present at the defeat of the Sialkote mutineers on the banks of the Ravee on the 12th and 16th July 1857. From 14 August 1857, he was at the siege of Delhi, receiving the medal and clasp.

In February 1877, Dr Henry Alexander Gogarty retired from the army with the rank of Surgeon-Major, having completed twenty-two years' full-pay service.

mutiny medal
Indian Mutiny 1857–58 medal with clasp Delhi (30 May to 14 Sep 1857) awarded to Surgeon Major H A Gogarty (Courtesy M Abbott).

On his retirement from the army he settled down at Canterbury, where he joined the staff of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. With his election to it began more than twenty-five years of very active professional and administrative work. He remained in good health until some eighteen months before his death, when he resolved to give up practice and was elected Consulting Physician to the hospital.

A resolution passed by the governors at the time of his retirement bore warm testimony to the value of the work he had done for the institution, and noted that in addition to his professional services he had rendered valuable assistance on the Board of Management. Other institutional work which Dr. Gogarty carried on nearly to the end of his life was the task of giving lectures on practical medicine to the students at St Augustine's Missionary Training College. On the reorganisation of the British Medical Association in 1901, he was chosen as the first Chairman of the Kent and Faversham Division. He was also the Honorary Librarian of the Canterbury Medical Society.

Dr Henry Alexander Gogarty died on 18 April 1906. He was married and was survived by his wife Emily, two daughters and two sons.1

Service Record

grave gogarty
Surgeon Major H A Gogarty AMD St Martins Church, Canterbury (Courtesy M Abbott).

29 Aug 1855 Acting Assistant Surgeon.

29 Aug 1855 Assistant Surgeon 52nd (Oxfordshire Light Infantry) Regiment. Commission antedated from 28 December 1855.

Malta 29 Sep 1855 Arrived from England.

Malta 15 Feb 1856 Left for the East Indies.

Dr Antonio Pullicino, a civilian medical practitioner, was temporarily employed to replace Gogarty, at the rate of 7s 6d and allowances.

1857 Served in the Indian Mutiny.

Malta 3 Oct 1868 Arrived from England.

Malta 1869 On garrison duty at the regimental hospital Upper Vittoriosa.

Malta 26 Feb 1870 Promoted Staff Surgeon in 52nd Foot. From Staff Surgeon was appointed Surgeon 52nd (Oxfordshire Light Infantry) Regiment vice Surgeon Major John Coghlan Haverty, who was relegated to half-pay.

14 June 1870 To England on private leave.

16 Sep 1870 Returned from leave.

Malta 18 Aug 1871 To England on private leave.

18 Nov 1871 Exchanged with Staff Surgeon Thomas Norton Hoysted who became Surgeon 52nd Light Infantry.

24 Feb 1872 Exchanged with Surgeon John By Cole Reade 3rd/Rifle Brigade. He remained as their medical officer until 1877.

29 Aug 1875 Promoted Surgeon Major.

21 Feb 1877 Retired to half-pay.

1880 Resident at 16 St Georges' Place Canterbury.

18 Apr 1906 Died at Canterbury.

Bibliography