Newsroom interviews... Dr Lea Doughty, author of Military Medicines: ANZAC Military Pharmacy, 1914-1918
This week Newsroom interviewed Lea Doughty about their research into pharmacists who served with the New Zealand forces in WW1.
Dr Doughty goes into the conditions pharmacists worked in, the impact on the communities who lost their pharmacists when they were conscripted to go to war, and the role of social status in what records were kept.
WARNING: This interview deals with suicide. Please see below for help and crisis information.
Q. Why did you choose the subject of NZ pharmacists in WW1?
A. I was working full time as a Personal Assistant to two Pharmaceutical Science Professors at the School of Pharmacy at Otago, while finishing my BA in History part-time. I’ve always been interested in the societal change brought about by WWI, and was reading a book on WWI ANZAC nurses, when a single sentence mentioned the dispensary car of a hospital train. Lightbulb moment – I realised at that second that while a lot had been written about the doctors, nurses, surgeons, dentists to a lesser degree, and general medical practices of the war (especially surgery), absolutely nothing had been written about medicines or those who handled them (pharmacists). The narrative had been completely dominated by the ‘glamour’ professions. I think I looked through almost every book in the university library on WWI medical history and there was just nothing. I realised then that there was this HUGE gap in the historiography of WWI medical history, and became very interested in finding out *why* WWI pharmacy and pharmacy practice had been overlooked. After this, I had an essay on medicine supply to NZ during WWI published in Health and History (2015: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5401/healthhist.17.2.0037) while still an undergrad, which really was the starting point of the research.
Q. What were your three key takeaways from this period of research?
A. The invisibility of pharmacists – how they were not represented at all in medical histories of the war as they were not officers, but were overshadowed by physicians, dentists and nurses (all of whom had direct contact with patients); the role of social class was much more important and defining for military pharmacists than I had originally thought; how class and social status also influenced what records were kept by archives.
Q. What was life like for enlisted pharmacists during this period of war?
A. Much the same as for any other enlisted soldier. Many did not work as pharmacists for their war service, but were sent to combat units and served as infantrymen, in the mud, gore and misery of the front line. Some served as stretcher-bearers, some became gunners (artillery). A few were lucky enough to be posted to the Medical Corps and did work as pharmacists in dispensaries on hospital ships or in general or base hospitals so lived in a more comfortable way to those on the front lines. There were more pharmacists than there were army dispenser positions available, though.
Q. Do you think participating in war changed how people viewed pharmacists back in New Zealand?
A. Not as pharmacists, but as returned soldiers/veterans – on return, they either were absorbed back into their pharmacies and communities and quietly carried on with life as before, or left pharmacy altogether (Dunbar Sloane is an example of a pharmacist who gave up their profession post-war). A few were badly affected, and took their own lives within five years after the war ended.
The absence of pharmacists from NZ was a concern to the Pharmacy Board, however, particularly after conscription was enacted in August 1916 and pharmacists were being drafted, leaving communities unable to access medicines (the pharmacy could not open without a registered pharmacist on site). The Board approached the Minister for Munitions and Supplies, and an arrangement was made for the Board to advocate for pharmacists who had been drafted on the grounds of public interest – these exemptions were generally granted.
Q. What was something that really surprised you as you researched this thesis?
A. That the Government did not recognise pharmacy qualifications at all, and also the level of determination of serving pharmacists to get the recognition they felt they deserved (in the form of commissioned officer status) was truly inspiring.
Q. How long did this thesis take to write?
A. It was a three-year research project.
Q. Do pharmacists still have a role to play in these conflicts?
A. Absolutely – the role of military pharmacists today has been expanded and is now that of Medical Quartermaster, and they are responsible for the supply chain and logistics for all medical equipment for the service they work in (Army, Navy, Air Force). They are also now commissioned officers.
Q. Has your thesis led to further research? Newsroom understands you are now writing a book on this subject.
A. The thesis is a benchmark, a jumping-off point for future research and can be expanded on in many more ways, given sufficient time, interest and resources. Many of the archival sources are fragmented and scattered and it would be great for someone to stitch them together to do a more in-depth study of the work of military pharmacists during the war. And not only WWI, but the interwar period is interesting – how did things change (if at all) for military pharmacists between the wars? What was their experience during WWII? Had anything changed from WWI? What did they do in the Korea Emergency and during the Vietnam War? How did their experience change over time during conflicts from the early to late 20th century? I don’t think anyone else has picked any of this up, however.
As part of the research for the thesis, I created a database of serving NZ pharmacists, and it is their stories I am telling from a human (rather than academic) perspective – it will be a ‘popular history’ book, rather than an academic text, for general readership. They were sons and brothers, uncles and fathers (they were all male, as women did not serve then except as nurses), and all deserve to have their service recognised and stories told (at least, as much as is possible).
Q. Is there anything that you’ve uncovered with this research that you wish people knew?
A. NZ military pharmacists only attained commissioned officer rank in the 1980s – that’s how long it took the NZ Government to recognise their qualifications from it first being raised in 1914.
You can find out more about pharmacists in WW1 by following this link: DoughtyLee2020PhD.pdf (otago.ac.nz)
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