View source for Michael Watt (medical doctor)

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'''Michael Herbert Watt''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|CBE|size=85%}} (16 March 1887 – 7 April 1967) was a New Zealand medical doctor and public health administrator. 

==Early life and education==
Watt was born in [[Green Island, New Zealand|Green Island]], [[Otago]], the 11th child of Michael Watt, a Presbyterian minister who taught at Presbyterian Theological College in [[Dunedin]], and his wife, Isabella Shand, both of whom were from Scotland. He was educated at [[Otago Boys' High School]] and earned [[Bachelor of Medicine|MB]] and [[Bachelor of Surgery|ChB]] degrees from the [[University of Otago]] in 1910. After a year of clinical experience in London, Wolverhampton and Dublin, he received his [[Doctor of Medicine|MD]] in 1912. In the mid-1910s he earned a [[Professional degrees of public health|Diploma in Public Health]] from the same university, the second person to do so.<ref name=DNZBt>{{DNZB|title=Michael Herbert Watt|first= Derek A.|last= Dow|id=4w8|year=1998|accessdate=30 November 2022}}</ref>

==Career==
Watt was in private practice in [[Ngāruawāhia]] from 1911. In 1914 he became a demonstrator in [[physiology]] at the University of Otago, and in 1915 an instructor in anatomy. The following year, he left this position to become a part-time district health officer in the [[Ministry of Health (New Zealand)|Department of Public Health]], and in 1917 became district health officer in [[Wellington]], the first holder of such a position born and trained in New Zealand.<ref name=DNZBt/>

After the 1920 departmental reforms, Watt became the first director of the Division of Public Health, and in 1925 he became deputy director general of health and in 1930, director general, succeeding [[Thomas Valintine]].<ref name=DNZBt/><ref>{{cite book |first=Derek A. |last=Dow |title=Safeguarding the Public Health: A History of the New Zealand Department of Health |location=Wellington |publisher=Victoria University Press |year=1995 |isbn=0-86473-285-6 |page=119 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EOtIoXYb4ncC&pg=PA119 }}</ref> With the outbreak of the [[Second World War]], in 1939 he was appointed to chair a wartime medical advisory committee and in 1942 as controller of the Hospitals Emergency Precautions Service. He retired in 1947.<ref name=DNZBt/> From 1948 to 1947, he was [[UNICEF]]'s regional director for Southeast Asia;<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.81535 |title=Watt, Michael Herbert 1887-1967: The rest of the day to myself |year=1957 |website=Unpublished collections |publisher=[[Alexander Turnbull Library]] |access-date=30 November 2022 }}</ref> appointed in 1949 to head the Far East mission, he was unable to take up the post after a medical examination led to his being diagnosed with [[Chronic lymphocytic leukemia|chronic lymphatic leukaemia]].<ref name=DNZBt/>

Moulded by the 1913 [[smallpox]] epidemic and by study tours of Japan and North America in 1925 and of North America, Britain and Scandinavia in 1938, Watt was a strong advocate of immunisation, [[tuberculosis]] eradication, health and dietary education<ref name=DNZBt/> and industrial health and safety.<ref>Dow (1995) pp. 144, 147.</ref> He played a major role in establishing the ''Journal of the New Zealand Branch of the Royal Sanitary Institute'' (1934), the Medical Research Council of New Zealand (1937) and the South Pacific Board of Health (1944),<ref name=DNZBt/> and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the National Health Institute.<ref name=DNZBt/><ref>Dow (1995) p. 159.</ref>

==Honours==
In the [[1935 Birthday Honours (New Zealand)|1935 King's Birthday Honours]], Watt was appointed a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] for his services to public health.<ref name=DNZBt/><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=34166 |date=3 June 1935 |pages=3809 |supp=y}}</ref>

==Personal life and death==
Watt married Mary Roberta McCahon in 1913 at [[Timaru]]; they had two sons, both of whom also entered medicine; his elder son, James Watt, was the first professor of [[paediatrics]] in New Zealand.<ref name=DNZBt/> He died in Wellington on 7 April 1967.<ref name=DNZBt/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watt, Michael}}
[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:New Zealand public health doctors]]
[[Category:Health professionals from Dunedin]]
[[Category:New Zealand Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:New Zealand public servants]]
[[Category:UNICEF people]]
[[Category:People educated at Otago Boys' High School]]
[[Category:University of Otago alumni]]