DR SIR HENRY TRISTRAM HOLLAND (1875 - 1965) OF QUETTA MISSION HOSPITAL "He Gave Sight to 100,000"

OBITUARY

SIR HENRY TRISTRAM HOLLAND

(1875-1965)

 

One of the best known of world ophthalmologists and certainly the one who did most good in his life was Sir Henry Holland, who died in hospital at Farnham, Surrey, on September 19, 1965, in his

ninetieth year. He was one of the most remarkable medical missionaries who ever lived and has been credited with saving the sight of more than 100,000 Indians and Pakistanis.

 

The son of a clergyman, he was educated in Edinburgh where his Fellowship in 1907. He was a distinguished student but, always intensely religious, from his undergraduate days he decided to become a medical missionary; he joined the Punjab Mission of

the Church Missionary Society in 1900, working for it for 48 years in India, gaining an immense reputation in ophthalmology. He spent some time in Kashmir and in 1907 was put in charge of the mission hospital at Quetta with which his name will always be associated.

 

In 1935 that city was devastated by an earthquake in which 20,000 people were killed in 30 seconds, and Holland

was buried in the ruins of his hospital, being rescued by his sons; but this disaster was only an excuse for him to be largely responsible for building a new and better hospital, amalgamating it

with a Church of England missionary hospital. Apart from his immense labours at Quetta he will always be remembered for establishing temporary "eye-camps" in regions where blindness was rife and no surgical help was available; in these, together with a team of surgeons which usually included his two sons, he would operate on an incredible number of cases before he passed on to the next place. This was started in 1911 when a Hindu philanthropist built for him a special hospital in Shikapur on the understanding that he would work there with his team for 6 weeks each year

 

The travels of his camps took him far afield, throughout India and Pakistan, Afghanistan and Baluchistan. At the age of 85 he and his team performed 2,500 ocular operations in 6 weeks at

Shikapur and, as always, without fee.

No one who does not know the Indian sub-continent can appreciate the value of this work, but many realized the importance of the social and political influence of this delightful, non-prudish, evangelical surgeon who in his fearless and outspoken way excited a strange influence for good, not only among Indians and Pakistanis of all walks of life, by whom he was worshipped, but also upon the British community. He took a prominent part in planning the medical policy of the Church and of the Government of India, and was later one of the founders of the British Empire (now the Royal Commonwealth) Society for the Blind. He received the Kaisar-i-Hind Silver Medal (1910),and the Gold Medal (1925) with a bar (1931); he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1929 and a Knight Bachelor in 1936; finally, in 1960 he (with his son, Dr. Ronald Holland) was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in Manila, presented to those who have served their fellow men with distinction. Never was an award more merited.

PAUL ANTON CIBIS

It is with great regret that we record the death of Dr. Paul A. Cibis, who died suddenly on

April 30, 1965, shortly after his visit to England to participate in the Annual Meeting of the

Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom. Paul Cibis, a native of Poland, completed

his residency in ophthalmology at the Eye Clinic of the University of Heidelberg in 1940 where he

remained as chief assistant in ophthalmology until 1949 when he was granted the von Graef.

 

Henry Holland, as you may know, was a young doctor at the C M S Hospital, who performed many Cataract extractions on the the local population. He survived the earthquake in 1935 and was Knighted. I recall as a young teenager being sent round our village with a tin, collecting for the hospital rebuilding programme!

 

As a medical student at Cambridge in 1940's I heard Sir Henry give a talk, in which he described how he might perform 70 cataract operations in a day, often in the open air, when prayer was the only premedication.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sir dr HENRY TRISTRAM HOLLAND, C.I.E., M.B. CH.B., F.R.C.S.ED.

 

An outstanding medical missionary in the Indian subcontinent, mainly in the part which is now West Pakistan, Sir Henry Holland died at the age of 90 on 19 September 1965. The tens of thousands of operations for cataract that he performed and the medical services

that he organized made a unique contribution to welfare in the East.

Henry Tristram Holland was born on 12 February 1875, the second son of Canon L. W. Holland, of Durham. His medical education was at Edinburgh University, where he graduated in 1899, and in 1907 he obtained the F.R.C.S.Ed.

 

Having decided while still an u n d e r graduate that he should be

a medical missionary he joined the Punjab Mission of the Church Missionary Society in 1900, remaining with it for 48 years. Though

he spent some time in Kashmir, his main life's work was in the C.M.S. Hospital at Quetta, with which his name will always be

associated.

 

Holland soon achieved fame as an eyes pecialist, and in 1911 a Hindu philanthropist built a special hospital in Shikarpur, Sind, on condition that he worked there with a team specially for eye operations for six weeks every year. This work continued through the

years, and Holland himself performed more than 60,000 operations for cataract alone. Visitors came from all over the world, and despite repeated offers of important posts elsewhere he always preferred to remain in the Punjab. Even so, he found time for travel throughout India and into Kashmir and Afghanistan on missionary and medical

duties, and in the remoter parts of Baluchistan his name has become a legend. In 1935 Quetta Hospital was completely destroyed by an earthquake and he was buried in the ruins, but was rescued by his elder son. It was chiefly through his efforts that money

was afterwards raised to erect, for the C.M.S. and Church of England Zenana Missionary hospitals there, much finer buildings than

before. Holland's name will always be remembered in connexion with temporary eye camps that he used to establish in areas where

blindness was rife. Over a period of some months he and a team of surgeons would then operate on hundreds of cases. In addition

he was a founder member of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind.

 

Holland was secretary of the C.M.S. Punjab Medical Executive Committee for thirty-two years, and also the Society's medical adviser for that area. He had a very considerable share in the planning of medical policy, not only of the Church but also of the Government. He received the Kaisar-i- Hind Silver Medal in 1910, the Gold Medal in 1925, and a bar to it in 1931. He was appointed C.I.E. in 1929 and knighted in 1936.

 

He was always a fearless and outspoken evangelist, both among the Pakistanis and among his own people, and his life deeply influenced generations of British soldiers and officials. Since his official retirement from C.M.S. missionary service in 1948, Sir Henry and Lady Holland had returned to the Frontier a number of times at the invitation of local chieftains. On each occasion he

performed cataract operations at Quetta or Shikarpur. In 1960 came the announcement that Sir Henry Holland and his son, Dr.

Ronald Holland, had been awarded the 1960 Ramon Magsaysay Award, presented annually to outstanding persons who have

served their fellow-men with distinction. Both Sir Henry and Dr. Ronald Holland travelled to Manila to receive it. The citation

stated that father and son had saved the sight of about 150,000 tribesmen. In his speech in reply Sir Henry concluded with the words,

" All that has been accomplished is only due to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose ambassadors we have tried to be."

 

Done