Brian McMahon (New Zealand Army officer)

McMahon began a career in the New Zealand Defence Force in 1966 as resident medical officer at the Waiouru Military Camp.^[3] In 1968, he was appointed to run the sexual health services of the Defence Force.^[2]

In 1969, McMahon served with the New Zealand forces in the Vietnam War, as part of the 1st New Zealand Services Medical Team.^[4] He left Vietnam in 1970,^[5] and later served in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Malaysia, the latter occasion as medical officer to the 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment.^[6][7] McMahon was appointed director-general of Defence Force Medical Services in 1980 and retired in 1983.^[6] During the same period, McMahon served as Honorary Surgeon to the Queen.^[4]

After leaving the military, McMahon served as medical superintendent of Wakari Hospital and then Dunedin Hospital. He was also medical officer of health in Otago and Southland, and a senior lecturer at Otago Medical School.^[7]

In the 1983 Queen's Birthday Honours, McMahon was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.^[8] The same year he became an officer of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, being appointed a commander in the same order in 1985 and a knight in 1990.^[9][10][11] He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Lazarus in 1986.^[1][4]

In retirement, McMahon continued to mentor medical students.^[3] He was appointed to the honorary role of colonel commandant of the Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps in 1992 and held that role until 1995. He was appointed to a second term from 2005 to 2008.^[6] McMahon served as life governor of Otago Boys' High School Old Boys' Society from 2000 to 2017 when he voluntarily relinquished the role.^[6]

In 1998, McMahon returned to Vietnam to reopen a hospital at Bong Son that had been destroyed during the war. During the trip he visited the site where a friend and sergeant had been killed by a land mine in front of McMahon.^[7]

McMahon was a member of the Leprosy Trust Board Fiji and regularly visited the South West Pacific and South East Asia on missions with the Pacific Leprosy Foundation.^[3] He also helped to raise $3 million for the neurosurgery chair at Dunedin Hospital.^[6]

In April 2011, McMahon was awarded the second Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association ANZAC of the Year Award, which was presented to him by the governor-general, Sir Anand Satyanand, at Government House, Wellington.^[4][7] He was also appointed the first patron of the University of Otago Medical School Brain Health Research Centre.^[4] In 2019, a scholarship was established in McMahon's name for second-year Bachelor of Health Science students at Auckland University of Technology. The $10,000 scholarship was funded by Veterans' Affairs New Zealand and the Ranfurly Veterans Trust, and commemorates New Zealand medical personnel of the Vietnam War.^[12]

McMahon's wife, Margaret, died in 2001.^[13] McMahon died in Dunedin on 13 March 2025, at the age of 95.^[13]