Newspaper Article 1984 – Queen’s honorary doctor has died

Queen’s honorary doctor has died

Leading Hastings doctor and honorary physician to the Queen, Dr D. Allan Ballantyne, died in Hastings on Tuesday.

Dr Ballantyne lived in Hastings since 1947 as a specialist physician, and was also visiting physician at Hastings Memorial Hospital. He retired from his practice last year.

Dr Ballantyne graduated from Otago University in 1936 and joined the resident staff of Napier Hospital. In 1940, he went overseas with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

He was captured in Crete in 1941 and served in a prisoner-of-war hospital in Germany until the end of the war. He was twice mentioned in dispatches.

In 1946 he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, London, returning to New Zealand the following year. He became a member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1950.

Dr Ballantyne maintained an active interest in the Royal NZ Army Medical Corps, and as colonel commanded the Second General Hospital.

His appointment as honorary physician to the Queen came in 1956. It was an Army appointment in recognition of his distinguished service in the Medical Corps.

In 1969 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

For many years he was an officer of the St John Ambulance in Hastings.

Dr Ballantyne is survived by his wife Mrs Sybil Joyce Ballantyne.