This biography is based on secondary sources and was compiled by Daniel Beaumont. If you knew Joan and would like to contribute to her biography, please contact us.
Contents
1957 graduate
Early life
Joan Chapple was born in 1934 in Te Puke to Kingsley and Winifred Chapple. She was the middle of five siblings; James and Jocelyn were her senior, and John and Jefferson her junior. Kingsley and Winifred were teachers at Te Matai Primary School in Te Puke. (1) When Joan and her siblings attended, they were among the only non-Māori family in the school. (2) Her father was progressive for his time and sought to improve relations between Māori and Pākehā in Te Puke as headmaster of Te Matai. (3) The school is now Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Matai, where the primary language is Te Reo.
Little is known about Joan’s upbringing – her family was close-knit, and she achieved highly at school. She attended Te Puke District School, Rotorua Girls’ High, and completed her schooling as a boarder at Epsom Girls Grammar in Auckland. She was school prefect in 1951 and enjoyed several hobbies and sports, including cello, woodcarving, pottery, tennis, hockey and swimming. (1) (2)
Medical school and early career:
It is not known why Joan decided to pursue medicine, but she entered medical intermediate at Auckland University in 1952, succeeding in her exams and entering Otago Medical School in 1953. Her peers remembered her as being a diligent and compassionate student. Inspired by Professor Alan Alldred, a prolific and influential orthopaedic surgeon lecturing at the University of Otago at the time, she became fascinated by surgery and orthopaedics. (2) She graduated in 1957 as one of only nine women in a class of 90 students with distinction in surgery. (4)
After a brief time working in Whanganui, Joan completed her house-surgeon training in Auckland. It was here that her interest in plastic surgery grew, and in 1961 she became a registrar in plastic surgery. She became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1963 – the second woman to do so in New Zealand, after Jean Sandel in 1947. She was the first officially recognised female plastic surgeon in New Zealand (Cecily Pickerill had been performing plastic surgery since 1940 as Assistant Plastic Surgeon at Wellington Hospital). With a growing interest in specialising in hand surgery, Joan decided to seek even further postgraduate training.
Over the next decade, Joan she worked with specialists in Australia, Britain, Russia, and India. Notably, she worked with revered hand surgeon Paul Brandt while in India, performing tendon transplants for patients with leprosy. (1) Joan then sought to work in the USA. Accounts differ here, but it is understood that she was targeted by the FBI as she had allegedly attended a communist meeting while at medical school. It is unclear whether they prevented her from entering the country or rather forced her to depart early, but the situation was not resolved until the authorities had talked with William Manchester, a prominent New Zealand plastic surgeon, who assured them of Joan’s credibility. (1) (2)
Surgery and activism back home
Joan returned to work under Manchester at Middlemore hospital in Auckland soon after (5). She furthered her work in treatment of hand injuries and served as a consultant to other hospitals when needed, acting as a mentor and tutor to junior doctors. However, surgery was a highly male-dominated landscape, and Chapple felt unwelcome amongst many of her peers – not least of all because regular surgical meetings were held at the Northern Club in Auckland’s CBD, a male only club. (5) She found her colleagues unsupportive of her assertive approach to tackling undesirable outcomes in surgery and her development of “unorthodox clinical concepts”. (2)
Her leadership extended to the local community. In 1969 she worked on a public health booklet called “Safer from Fire”, which was published by a nylon and polyester manufacturer to warn consumers of flammable clothing. In an interview for the Press on 10 June 1969, Joan called for further cooperation between government, manufacturers, retailers and safety organisations to provide safer clothing, particularly for children: “Even a Government subsidy would be reasonable, particularly when the enormous cost of treating burned children is considered.” (7)
In 1972 Joan became pregnant. When she asked Middlemore for five months maternity leave, she was dismissed from her post. This was a hugely controversial move, and it was widely believed that Middlemore’s decision was purely because Joan was unmarried. (1) Joan decided to travel to Wales instead to join her partner, a GP and holder of a Medical Research fellowship. Her mother joined her later that year, and the three of them travelled around Europe for three months. (2)
Joan returned to Auckland in 1975, working part-time at Auckland Hospital in Accident and Emergency (A&E) until 1994. (1) She also held a lecturer position at Auckland Medical School. At the hospital Joan was allowed to further her work in hand and soft tissue injuries, developing a treatment philosophy that revolved around mending wounds without stitches, and working ‘“with the body’s agenda to heal itself, not against it.’” (5) Her colleagues were often skeptical of her methods, writing her off, in her eyes, as “’too eccentric, too passionate’”. (5) But medical students, nurses, general practitioners and her patients marveled at both her technical skills and compassionate bedside manner.
Promulgation of her techniques and retirement
Joan’s techniques focused on avoiding “where possible the use of sutures and emphasising the importance of haemostasis, gentle handling of tissues and preservation of tissue blood supply with avoidance and pressure.” (1) The surgical establishment was slow to take note of Joan’s successes with her treatment methods, despite her widespread promulgation of her ideas in talks and seminars.
Soon after she retired in 1994, Joan published The Management of Soft Tissue Injuries: Philosophy, Principles and Practice, followed by Wound Care and Healing: The Physiological Challenge in 2003. (6) The latter became a key text for GPs, nurses and training surgeons, and became the basis for a medical text published by Springer in 2024. (2)
In 2001, soon after her mother died at the age of 96, Joan was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for her services to medicine and her community. She died in 2013 at the age of 79.
In an interview with the NZ Herald in 2008, Joan stated “you don’t set out to be outside the square. You just do what you think’s right and you find yourself there, surprised.” (5)
References
- “Obituary: Joan Chapple” New Zealand Medical Journal, 132, 1489, 2019, pp. 111-112.
- “Who was Joan Chapple?” in Peter Charlesworth and Michael F. Klaasen, Chapple’s Principles of Wound Care and Healing: The Physiological Challenge, Springer, 2024.
- “Māori Community Centre”, Te Puke Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 80, 20 October 1944, Page 2. Papers Past.
- “Otago University Examinations”, Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28458, 12 December 1957, Page 26. Papers Past.
- Sarah Lang, “Thinking Outside the Square”, The New Zealand Herald, 23 June 2008. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/thinking-outside-the-square/RTRJGWQIGSEOJXN52LG3VQYD4M/
- Peter Charlesworth and Michael F. Klaasen, Chapple’s Principles of Wound Care and Healing: The Physiological Challenge, Springer, 2024.
- “Burns Most Easily Avoided Accidents Press”, Volume CIX, Issue 32010, 10 June 1969. Papers Past.
