Hugh Acland survived the sinking of the Marquette in 1915 and went on to perform over 4000 operations during the First World War, mostly amputations tp save men from gangrene, He then took a close interest in the rehabilitation of amputees. Hugh was a quiet modest man yet he was the outstanding surgeon of his generation at Christchurch Hospital and unlike most surgeons he was deeply involved with hospital administration and planning: his advice was crucial for the new buildings of 1912-1914, the new Nurses' Home of 1933 and the later Princess Margaret Hospital. He had served as a surgeon in the Boer War and was the first doctor in New Zealand to devote his private practice to surgery. He helped establish the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and was knighted in 1933.
Hugh stood for the Christchurch mayoralty in 1935 and came within a few hundred votes of ousting a popular Labour mayor. He then served on the city council and advocated a pasteurised milk supply. On the hospital board he supported nursing training and promoted cancer research and radium treatment. During the Second World War he was in charge of army medical services for the South Island. This fully-referenced biography is based on family papers, hospital board archives and exhaustive newspaper research.