Hugh Acland survived the sinking of the Marquette in 1915 and went on to perform over 4,000 operations during the First World War, mostly amputations to save men from gangrene. 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. 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 stood for the Christchurch mayoralty in 1935. This fully-referenced biography is based on family papers, hospital board archives and exhaustive newspaper research.