This biography was complied by Rennae Taylor from secondary sources which are listed in the bibliography.
Class of 1922
Hazel Rebecca Bryan was born in Manaia, Taranaki in 1897 to Katherine and James John Patterson, a successful farmer and landowner. (1) She had three older sisters Amy (1889), Dorothy (1894) and Constance (1895) and three younger sisters Vivian (1898), Edith (1900) and Katherine (1905). (2) In her obituary it was noted that she was ‘devoted to her father and inherited some of his knowledge of farming and his love of the land’. (1) She passed some musical examinations in 1911 (3) as well as being successful in obtaining a senior free place for her senior secondary schooling for the 1913 school year at Wanganui Girls College. (4)
Following her matriculation, on the encouragement of her father, she decided to pursue entrance to medical school. She found her medical intermediate a challenge as the sciences had not been taught at her girls’ college but by the end of the 1915 school year she was successful in passing biology and physics. (1, 5) She was a MB ChB NZ graduate in the class of 1922 and received her registration 5 March 1923.
On 4 April 1922 she married Dr Peter Errol Allison from the class of 1920 who was by then practising in Waitara, (6). He was born in Christchurch in 1892 (2) and later played Davis Cup tennis between 1920-1924. He was a member of the first NZ Davis cup team, playing in Prague in 1924. (7) Hazel joined him at Waitara, where the community welcomed her with a reception and dance. (1, 8)
Quentin-Baxter, a fellow colleague at Christchurch Hospital, who wrote her obituary recounts some personal memories he and others had of Hazel: (1) She was described as popular and colourful during her student days. Dr Elspeth Mary Cameron (nee Fitzgerald) , class of 1920, recalled this story about Hazel: (1)
“It was Hazel’s turn to go out and get the evening meal for herself and her three room mates. She was absent an unusually long time, and when she returned she had not food and no money. She hastily explained that as she crossed the bridge over the Leith, she saw a woman leaning over the parapet, crying bitterly. It transpired she had been turned out of her home by a drunken husband. Hazel walked her back home, towered over the husband and told him what she thought of him. She warned him that if he did this sort of thing again, she would come back and beat him up. She did indeed keep an eye on this family for some time.”
They left for England in 1923 for eighteen months to do further study. During this time overseas Hazel gained further experience in giving anaesthetics. On their return they practised at Christchurch Hospital, Hazel in anaesthetics and Peter in radiology and later dermatology (in later years exposure to radium resulted in his partial right arm having to be amputated with Hazel administering the anaesthetic). (1,7) It appears from the Medical Gazette that neither of them gained further qualifications while overseas. (9)
Hazel was a senior anaesthetist until her retirement in 1944. She was noted to have an ability ‘to induce in her patients a feeling of implicit trust’. During her time at Christchurch Hospital she delivered well over 1000 anaesthetics. (1)
In addition to her career, she raised three sons Anthony, James and Richard and two daughters Mary Blackley and Judith Wilding. (10) Her eldest son Anthony was a graduate of the class of 1948. Percy died in 1954 at the age of 62 years (7) and Hazel on 12 August 1968 at the age of 71 years. (10)
Her life-long friend, Dr Marion Cameron (nee Whyte) Class of 1918 described her thus: (1)
“As a force to reckon with, tremendously strong, shy, highly strung, with a keen sense of humour and a hatred of the shoddy …. not slow to act, provided the action was not on her own behalf. She possessed unbounded energy and could work from dawn till late at night, day after day. She was unselfish in the extreme: her own pleasure, her own interests, her own comfort and even her own health seemed of little consequence.”
Contents
Bibliography
- Quentin-Baxter RH. Obituary: Hazel Rebecca Bryan Allison. NZ Med J. 1969:348-9.
- Births, Deaths and Marriages Wellington: NZ Government Internal Affairs; [12.06.25]. Available from: https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
- Musical. Feilding Star. 1911 07.12.1911. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/FS19111207.2.2
- Free Places Awarded. Wanganui Chronicle. 1913 24.01.1913. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19130124.2.22.2
- New Zealand University Examination Results. Colonist. 1915 22.12.1915. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TC19151222.2.48
- Wedding Hawera & Normanby Star. 1922 19.04.1922. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HNS19220419.2.43
- Obituary Press. 1954 03.08.1954. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19540803.2.138
- Wright-St Clair RE. “Historia Nunc Vivat” Medical Practitioners in New Zealand 1840 to 1930 Christchurch: Cotter Medical History Trust; 2003.
- New Zealand Gazette Register of Medical Practitioners Wellington: W. A. G. Skinner, Government Printer; 1931 [cited 1931 09.09.2025]; 94. Available from: https://www.nzlii.org/nz/other/nz_gazette/1931/94.pdf
