Henry Pickerill
Henry Percy Pickerill was a British-born New Zealand dental surgeon and researcher, university administrator and plastic surgeon. Pickerill made major contributions to several fields of dentistry and plastic surgery both in New Zealand and overseas.
Early life
Pickerill, known to his family as Percy was born in Hereford, Herefordshire, England, on 3 August 1879, the oldest child of Mary Ann and Thomas Pickerill. His father was at the time a commercial clerk and was later the managing director of the Lugwardine Tile Works which made porcelain tiles.The eldest and only surviving son, Pickerill attended Chandos School, the private Collegiate School of Hereford and then Hereford County College.
Upon completing his secondary education he enrolled at the University of Birmingham in 1900 with the intention of studying dentistry and medicine. Following a two-year apprenticeship in dentistry he was awarded a LDSRCS in 1903. The University of Birmingham was the first university in Great Britain to offer a BDS degree and which allowed Pickerill to take advantage of the dental and medical degrees sharing common courses to gain a BDS and MBChB in 1904. Later he added from the University of Birmingham, a MD and MDS, both in 1911, and MCh in 1923.
Upon graduating Pickerill worked in a dental practice in Hereford and as a clinical demonstrator in the dental department of the General Hospital in Birmingham. In 1906 he was appointed a lecturer in dental pathology and histology at the University of Birmingham. In that same year he also married.
Immigration to New Zealand
In 1906 after seeing an advertisement he applied for and was appointed at the age of 28 to the position of Dean of the Dental School at the University of Otago. His submitted CV included a claim that he had attended the University of Oxford. However, there is no record of him having attended the university.In the early 20th century entry to the dental profession in New Zealand was restricted to those who had completed a degree or certificate of proficiency in dental surgery. In response, the dental school of the University of Otago was established on 1 July 1907 with a temporary director assisted by 12 honorary dental surgeons.
Pickerill reached Dunedin and took up his position in September 1907 on a salary of £500 a year.
Initially the first students were those who had already served apprenticeships with established dentists and had enrolled at the school to complete their final qualifications. Beginning in 1908, Charles Hercus was one of the first three who enrolled to undertake the four-year Bachelor of Dentistry degree. Another three students started in May of the same year. Pickerill was to convince Hercus to study medicine upon completing his dentistry degree. Hercus went on to have a distinguished career in medicine.
Pickerill established himself as a prolific author, researcher and teacher on a wide range of subjects including cariology, oral physiology and oral and maxillofacial surgery. Pickerill taught most of the classes which covered pathology, bacteriology, orthodontics, dental mechanics as well as actual dental surgery.
In 1909 Pickerill introduced a short course on dentistry for medical students. Since its opening the school had no shortage of patients. However the school finances were plagued by a shortage of students and thus income, which was not resolved until a campaign led by acting Dean O.V. Davies led to bursaries covering fees and living costs for dental students that was established in 1917. As both teacher and Dean he introduced high standards of training during the long and bitter argument among the New Zealand medical fraternity over whether dentists should pass through an apprenticeship system or be university-trained.
Pickerill also did a great deal of research and was a prolific author, notable among them being his essay The Prevention of Dental Caries and Oral Sepsis, for which he received the Cartwright Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1911 and Stomatology in General Practice: A Textbook of Diseases of the Teeth and Mouth.
Pickerill believed that child-care practices and hygiene standards in New Zealand were inadequate and encouraged dentists to support the recently formed Plunket Society, which aimed to improve child health.
In conjunction with Sydney Champtaloup, Professor of Bacteriology and Public Health at the Otago Medical School, Pickerill undertook a study to compare the state of the teeth of the Maori population located in the remote sparsely Urewera with those of the general population. The object was to confirm studies undertaken in other countries that the natural diet of native populations made them seemingly immune to dental caries. Champtaloup was unable to leave his laboratory for the first trip in 1912 so accommodated by an interpreter, Pickerill observed in his words, "more perfect sets of teeth than I had ever seen before". Together with Champtaloup he revisited the area in late 1913, taking a full set of laboratory equipment.
Pickerill served as editor of the New Zealand Dental Journal from 1909 to 1916.
Service in World War 1
In June 1915 Pickerill received a commission as a territorial captain with the New Zealand Medical Corps. Pickerill, together with Thomas Hunter and other members of the New Zealand Dental Association was successful in pushing for the creation of a dental corps. Once it was established in November 1915 as the New Zealand Dental Corps he was immediately transferred to as one of the two original Assistant Directors of Dental Services.In 1916 Pickerill took leave from his position at the University of Otago to serve overseas with the NZDC, departing New Zealand on 30 December 1916 with the 20th Reinforcements NZEF on the troopship Athenic. Concerned that too many soldiers were returning to New Zealand with dental and jaw injuries that could have been improved by earlier treatment, General George Richardson of the N.Z.E.F. had specifically asked for Pickerill. As a result, upon arriving in England in March 1917, he was posted to the No 2 New Zealand General Hospital at Walton-on-Thames with orders to establish a unit for the treatment of jaw and facial injuries. Upon arrival Pickerill found that the 50-bed ward had no jaw cases and no workroom. Within two months he had 40 patients, a fully equipped workshop, and a permanent dental mechanic. Pickerill was soon operating as a maxillofacial surgeon, gaining a reputation in the fields of facial reconstruction and plastic surgery as he pioneered the use of bone, skin and fat grafting, and jaw wiring. This was despite no formal training or qualification in this field.
On 9 January 1918, Pickerill, by now with the rank of major, his dental mechanic and 29 patients were transferred under duress to the newly opened Queen's Hospital at Sidcup. Initially, Pickerill was reluctant to move to Sidcup. Two days after arriving, Pickerill suggested that he return to New Zealand, where he felt that while resuming his duties as Dean he would still have time to undertake further corrective work once the patients' initial treatment had stabilized during the voyage home. He however changed his mind and stayed in his position. Pickerill’s team carried out 113 plastic surgery operations at Sidcup between 11 February and 14 July 1918.
Return to New Zealand
Following the end of the war Pickerill, his unit, and the remaining 59 patients departed in March 1919 on the SS Tainui. After their arrival back in New Zealand in May 1919 they established themselves as the Facial and Jaw Department within the military section at Dunedin Hospital. The military had established this specialist orthopedic centre within Dunedin Hospital under the command of Lt. Col. L. E. Barnett in 1918. It was housed in the Batchelor, Sidcup and newly built Alexandra Wards of the hospital. In June 1919, Pickerill succeeded Barnett as officer in charge. The centre, when combined with the 25 bed capacity of the Jaw Hospital, could treat and house 111 servicemen.Reporting to Pickerill were four technical staff - a modeller, photographer, dental mechanic, and artist. In addition Pickerill was able to draw on the services of other members of the military establishment of the hospital. When the military section was closed in 1920 and its assets transferred to the Hospital Board, Pickerill was appointed to the honorary staff of the hospital. While surgeries were undertaken in the hospital of the Red Cross Society in June 1919 rented for three years Woodside, the substantial home which was owned by Richard Brinsley the proprietor of a local iron-foundry firm at 4 Lovelock Avenue in North Dunedin. Known as the Woodside Jaw Hospital, it was used to house the patients Pickerill had bought back from the United Kingdom, conduct some treatments, and as act a convalescent centre.
In June 1919 Pickerill was recognized for his service by being promoted to lieutenant-colonel.
Pickerill continued overseeing the long-term care of the unit's patients until December 1921 when, after the closing of the unit, he returned full-time to his position as Dean of the Dental School where he found that as the result of the work of O.V. Davies the number of students had increased and dentistry as a university discipline was well established. As the existing building was proving to be too small, Pickerill had to overcome a proposal by Auckland interests establish a rival dental school in that city. However he was able to convince the government that the dental school needed to be close to the country's only medical school. Approval for the construction of a new building was given in April 1924, and it opened in June 1926.
Pickerill strongly opposed the proposal by Thomas Anderson Hunter to establish a child dental health service which would be staffed by school dental nurses who were to receive just 18 months' training. His efforts failed to prevent the establishment of the New Zealand School Dental Service in 1921.
Using his wartime experience Pickerill developed what is known as the triangular or zig-zag graft to remove hare lips, principally on babies. This method cut the cleft into two triangles on each side and then rearranged the triangles.