Name: MATTHEW SPENCE

Qualifications:
DA, Eng, 1951
FFARCS, 1954

Date of Birth: 5 September 1918
Date of Death: 27 October 1993

Born in Scotland in 1918, Matthew Spence qualified in both medicine and dentistry. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps during the war and was posted to India.

After the war he gained his DA in 1951 and FFARCS in 1954. Not long after, he migrated to Aotearoa New Zealand, taking on a role as a specialist anaesthetist at Auckland Hospital. From here, Spence became interested in working with infectious diseases physicians to try to stop people dying from acute ventilatory failure, particularly from polio and tetanus.

By 1958 he had acquired dedicated beds within the infectious diseases ward which became New Zealand’s first ‘intensive care unit. His efforts culminated in the commission of a stand-alone acute respiratory unit which opened in 1962. Spence was appointed as the medical officer in charge.

Spence was co-founder of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) and the society struck the Matt Spence Medal in his honour in 1981.

Spence retired in 1983 but secured a part-time position at the Blood Transfusion Unit for a few years and became a medical adviser to the Accident Compensation Commission until 1993.

SOURCES
Form of application for permission to appear before a Court of Examiners for the final Fellowship of the Faculty, 1957; Obituary, ANZCA Bulletin, March 1994.

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