Douglas Wellington Montgomery Papers
Portrait of Douglas Wellington Montgomery (1912-1978, FRCSI, PRCSI 1968-1970)
Born in 1912 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Douglas Wellington Montgomery received an Irish education and graduated with an MB from Trinity College Dublin in 1940. He was awarded the Haughton Medal and awards for clinical medicine and surgery at St Patrick Dun’s Hospital, as well as the Bennett Medal and Surgical Prize. He went on to receive his Fellowship from RCSI.
Montgomery served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II and took part in the D-Day landings in Normandy on 6th June 1944. Heading up a Field Surgical Team comprising an anaesthetist, two operating-room assistants and an orderly, Montgomery was later confirmed by Army Command to have been the first Allied surgeon to operate in any part of Liberated France. Montgomery and his team established a temporary operating theatre in the village town hall of Ver-Sur-Mer within 90 minutes of setting foot on dry land; their first casualty was a German prisoner of war.
Montgomery remained in Normandy for the next fifteen weeks, during which time his surgical team was further attached to two nearby hospitals. He performed 240 ‘major’ operations during this period, the details of which he recorded meticulously in his surgical log. Montgomery subsequently recounted his experience as a surgeon in Normandy in a report outlining issues such as the nature of injuries sustained in battle, treatment options and availability of drugs in the field, and working conditions for medics. Montgomery was subsequently invalided out of the armed forces on his return home due to injuries sustained to his back while carrying over 80lbs of surgical supplies during the D-Day landings.
Back in Ireland, Montgomery was commissioner of the St John Ambulance Brigade and was made a Knight of the Order of St John by Queen Elizabeth II. He was President of RCSI 1968-1970.
