Arthur Porritt, Baron Porritt

Arthur Porritt, Baron Porritt, was a New Zealand physician and military surgeon who also became an Olympic athlete and statesman. Born in Whanganui in 1900, he studied medicine at the University of Otago and, as a Rhodes Scholar, at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became a house surgeon at St Mary's Hospital in London in 1926 and was appointed surgeon to the Prince of Wales. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, in France until the evacuation from Dunkirk and then in Egypt. He won a bronze medal in the 100 metres at the 1924 Olympic Games, was the first president of the International Olympic Committee Medical Commission, and served as governor-general of New Zealand from 1967 to 1972.