Mollie Christie (née Fisher)

This biography was compiled by Rennae Taylor, based on primary and secondary sources.

1923 graduate

Early childhood and family background

Molly Fisher was born to Charlotte Mary (née Dorset) and Robert Hayward Fisher on 23 April 1901. She had a younger brother Eric Hayward, born in 1903. Her mother was born in NZ in 1866 and her father in Staffordshire, England circa 1867 prior to immigrating to NZ. He and Charlotte were married in NZ in 1900. (1, 2) Mollie’s father died in Wellington in 1919 at the age of 52 years from an accident where he was accidentally struck down by a motor car while getting off a tramcar. (3) Her mother died in Masterton in 1934 aged 68 years. (1, 2)

Mollie spent her childhood in Wellington and attended the local primary school where she gained her 6th standard proficiency in December 2014 and was successful in obtaining a junior national scholarship (4) which funded her secondary education at Wellington Girls College in the suburb of Thorndon. (5) She was successful in obtaining matriculation, solicitor’s general knowledge and medical preliminary at the end of 1917. (6) She excelled in her piano studies and obtained her senior gold medal from Trinity College London in 1917. (7)

University

Mollie attended Victoria College, Wellington where she obtained her Medical Intermediate and then went on to Otago Medical School where she was successful in obtaining her MB ChB in 1923 as well as winning the Bachelor Medal in Obstetrics. (8, 9) She was one of ten women to graduate that year. It is not known what influenced her going into medicine.

Medical Officer and Overseas Post Graduate Training

In her NZ Medical Journal (NZMJ) obituary, Mollie’s son, Dr R. H. K. Christie, a surgeon at Hutt Hospital reports that the returned servicemen from World War I were given priority for the junior doctor hospital posts. This resulted in Mollie going to the West Coast and being employed by the Westland Medical Board as medical officer for two years. (10) This included becoming the medical superintendent for the geriatric hospital in Kumara with the right to private practice. (9) He writes the following:

Only the second ‘lady doctor’ on the West Coast, she was welcomed by a Grand Ball and Mayoral speech, and then for two years pulled teeth, mixed medicines, delivered babies and attended accidents for the hospitable West Coasters. Transport was a Model T Ford. Its high clearance was ideal for fording flooded streams and crossing railway bridges, but with no wipers, half a cut onion was needed to keep the windscreen clear from rain.

Kumara, about 30 km inland from Greymouth, started as a gold rush mining town around 1874 but by the time Mollie would have been the doctor it relied on dredging for gold and sawmilling. (11)

Mollie then travelled to England and obtained her Diploma in Medical Radiology and Electrology from Cambridge University in 1926. Her boyfriend, Harry Kenrick Christie (class of 1920) from a Southland farming family, (12) was a registrar at Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at this time. Mollie had hoped to be able to operate an x-ray machine for his future work. (9)

Whanganui years

Mollie and Harry were married in NZ in 1926 and set up practice in Whanganui. (1) In her NZMJ obituary, her son said the small city was not ready for an orthopaedic surgeon or a private radiologist, so his father did general surgery and his mother did general practice, anaesthetics and obstetrics and was appointed honorary physician at Whanganui Hospital. (9) In 1929 Harry was awarded the MCh (UNZ) in general and orthopaedic surgery, a Master’s degree rarely taken at that time and was appointed surgeon to Whanganui Hospital and established an orthopaedic department there. (12)

With the increased birthrate following World War II, Mollie was also appointed obstetric specialist from 1948 to 1962 until a specialist obstetrician was appointed. (9, 10) At this time the Whanganui Hospital Board ran four large old two storied maternity homes scattered around the city. These were replaced by the hospital maternity block in 1955 and when she resigned her obstetric post in 1962, its upper floor was named the Mollie Christie Ward. Her last hospital appointment was temporary charge of the Accident and Emergency Department in 1971. (9)

Mollie and Harry’s first child was born in 1928, followed by another four children. Two became medical doctors, and one had a doctorate in history. (10) Her daughter Charlotte Lilian Roberston nee Christie and her daughter-in-law Cathryn Anne Christie nee McIver both graduated from Otago Medical School in 1955 and practiced as anaesthetists at Brantford Hospital, Canada and Hutt Hospital, Lower Hutt (14) respectively. (13)

In her biography included in “The Good’s train doctors: stories of women doctors in New Zealand 1920-1993”, Mollie advised that she worked continuously from 1921 to 1986 and this was possible because of “extremely good help in the home” otherwise she would not have managed. Over her sixty plus years of medical practice she could not recall ever having been “actively discriminated against for being a woman”. (10)

In the NZ Medical Journal obituary, her son gives these anecdotes about his mother: (9)

One memorable afternoon was 3 September 1939, when she was called out to a back country farm, to see the farmer’s wife, who had had a heart attack. The road was blocked by a slip, and after clambering over that, the rest of the journey there and back was on horseback, not so easy with a medical bag, and seven months pregnant with her fifth child. On her return to Whanganui, she learned that war had been declared.

The war years were busy for the thinned out medical ranks left at home. Harry was overseas for nearly five years and she had a large area to cover. One call was to go up the Whanganui River beyond Pipiriki to remove a retained placenta, the new father giving the anaesthetic as directed.

Other activities

Mollie involved herself in many of the activities of her community and medical association. For several years she was on the Board of Whanganui Girls College and was a life member of the YWCA. (9)

She was honorary physician to Karitane for some years and gave community service to St John Ambulance. She served one term for the local British Medical division and was appointed a life member of the NZ Women’s Medical Association in 1973. (9, 10) In 1941, she was elected patron of the newly formed Whanganui Women’s Cricket Association (16), was medical advisor to the recently formed Castlecliff Women’s Surf Club (17) and when her husband went overseas to serve in World War II she became vice-president of the Whanganui Orchestral Society. (18)

She was supportive of her contemporary Dr Doris Gordon’s work on campaigning against abortion and gave a lecture for women in Whanganui towards developing a constructive policy. (19)

Honours

In 1971 she was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition for her work in the medical field in Whanganui and for her service to women. (9, 10)

Mollie died in Whanganui on 14 March 1997, aged ninety-five. She was survived by all but one of her of five children, eleven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. (9) Her husband Harry had predeceased in his 86th year on 23 April 1981 after a collision on his motor-bike when blinded by the setting sun. (12)

Bibliography

1. Births, Deaths and Marriages Wellington: NZ Government Internal Affairs; [12.06.25]. Available from: https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
2. Search our Cemetaries Masterton: Masterton District Councel; [12.06.25]. Available from: https://www.mstn.govt.nz/property-rates-and-building/cemeteries/search-our-cemeteries
3. Fatal Street Accident New Zealand Times. 1919 18.03.1919. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19190318.2.19
4. Scholarships. Evening Post, . 1915 09.01.15. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19150109.2.22
5. Maxwell MD. Women doctors in New Zealand : an historical perspective, 1921-1986,. Auckland: IMS(NZ) Ltd; 1990.
6. Matriculation Results. Evening Post. 1918 16.01.18. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19180116.2.11
7. Misss Fagan’s Pupils’ Concert. Dominion. 1917 26.12.17. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19171226.2.8
8. Medical Registration. Evening Post [Advertisement]. 1923 24.12.1923 (col. 8). Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19231224.2.8.8
9. Christie RHK. Obituary: Mollie Christie. NZ Med J. 1997.
10. McIlraith J. The Good’s train doctors: stories of women doctors in New Zealand 1920-1993. Dunedin, N.Z: NZ Women’s Medical Association; 1994.
11. Andrew. History of Kumara Kumara, NZ. Available from: http://www.kumarawestcoast.org/history
12. England RCoSo. Obituary for Christie, Harry Kenrick (1894 – 1981), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. London, England: Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows; 2014 [cited 2025 16.06.25]. Available from: https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378542/0
13. Supplement to the Medical Gazette: NZ Medical Register 1970 Wellington: A. R. Shearer Government Printer; 1970 [16.06.2025]. Available from: https://www.nzlii.org/nz/other/nz_gazette/1970/77.pdf
14. Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows London, England: Royal College of Surgeons of England; 2000 [24.07.2025]. Available from: https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/results?qu=christie&te=ASSET&dt=list
15. Advertisements : Sex and Life. Wanganui Chronicle. 1941 12.07.1941. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19410712.2.3.5
16. Three Women’s Cricket Clubs Have Been Formed In Wanganui Wanganui Chronicle. 1949 31.08.1949. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19490831.2.84
17. Women Life-Savers. Wanganui Chronicle. 1941 15.10.1941. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19411015.2.79
18. Personal. Wanganui Chronicle. 1940 16.04.1940. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19400416.2.31
19. Evils of Abortion. Wanganui Chronicle. 1937 01.06.1937. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19370601.2.92