Herbert William Gallagher (1917 - 2007)

(Obituary by Dr Hume Logan)  

After attending Methodist College, Belfast, Herbert Gallagher went up to Queen’s to study medicine, graduating in 1939. He immediately volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps, being called for service in 1940. On his way to England the ship on which he was travelling struck a mine outside Liverpool. He tended the injured before the ship sank and was widely praised for his efforts.

Herbert’s war service took him to Egypt and India where he worked on surgical units and he married the sister who worked on the same unit. It was at this time that he decided to make surgery his career and on demobilisation he trained in the Belfast City Hospital, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1946. After inauguration of the National Health Service he became a Consultant at Banbridge Hospital, later moving to Newtownards Hospital.

Herbert was one of the founder members of the Ulster Surgical Club and later was President of the Ulster Medical Society. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Ireland and was made a Fellow of the College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1976. He retired in 1977 aged sixty. Not being one to lead an indolent life he became an Alliance Party Councillor and a founding member of Comber Probus Club which he attended till shortly before his death (due to a carcinoma of the oesophagus). His wife predeceased him by many years but before doing so she introduced him to embroidery in which he took a great interest competing and exhibiting. He also took an interest in several philanthropic organisations.

 

 

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