Scalpel and Sword

Published by Angus & Robertson Ltd, 1936, ex-library copy.

James Sands Elliott was born at Randalstown, County Antrim, Ireland, 1880, the son of James Kennedy Elliott, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife, Margaret Dickson. When he was four he was brought to Wellington, New
Zealand, where his father became minister to the Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church.

Elliott spent one year at the University of Otago Medical School. His father then sent him to the University of Edinburgh to complete his medical course. As a senior student he served with the medical corps in the South African War (1899--1902). As a result his father, who was ideologically opposed to the war and upset that
Elliott had interrupted his studies, withdrew further financial support. Elliott had to obtain odd jobs and use his savings from military service to complete his medical education. He would later repay his father and the rift
was repaired.

In the First World War Elliott was medical commander of the hospital ship Maheno and later assistant director of medical services in New Zealand. In the Second World War he was chairman, from 1940 to 1945, of the Joint
Council of the Order of St John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society.