{{Short description|New Zealand surgeon}} {{About|the professor|the chocolatier|Louis Barnett (chocolatier)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} thumb|Louis Barnett '''Sir Louis Edward Barnett''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|size=100%|CMG|FRCS}} (1865–1946) was a New Zealand professor of surgery, the first New Zealander to be made a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and one of the founders of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
== Early life and education == Barnett was born on 24 March 1865 in Wellington where he attended Thorndon School and Wellington College.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Beasley |first=A.W. |title=Barnett, Louis Edward |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3b9/barnett-louis-edward |access-date=10 August 2025 |website=Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand}}</ref> He completed his medical training at the University of Otago from 1883 to 1884 and then the University of Edinburgh graduating MB ChB in 1888.<ref name=":0" />
== Career == After working as a house surgeon at Middlesex Hospital he returned to New Zealand in 1891.<ref name=":0" /> In 1890 he was the first New Zealander to be made a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.<ref name=":0" />
Following locum surgical positions at Dunedin Hospital and temporary lectureships at the University of Otago Medical School he became a full lecturer in 1899 and professor of surgery from 1909 until 1924.<ref name=":0" />
In World War I he served as a surgeon with the Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Cairo.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Louis Edward Barnett |url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/84270 |access-date=2025-08-10 |website=Auckland War Memorial Museum |language=en}}</ref>
Barnett researched the potentially fatal hydatid disease (see echinococcus) at the University and established the hydatid registry of the College of Surgeons.<ref name=":0" /> He spent time investigating the disease with Félix Dévé, a French authority on the hydatid parasite, in 1926.<ref name=":0" />
Barnett established a reputation for safe and sound surgery, particularly aseptic principles.<ref name=":0" /> He was the first surgeon in New Zealand to wear rubber gloves and a gauze mask in the operating theatre.<ref name=":0" /> From 1920 he was instrumental in establishing a professional body for surgeons to raise the standard of surgery. In 1926 the College of Surgeons of Australasia (later the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) was founded and Barnett served as president from 1937 to 1939.<ref name=":0" />
He held positions as the editor of the New Zealand Medical Journal from 1893 to 1900 (which was amalgamated with the Australasian Medical Gazette from 1897 to 1900),<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Wright-St Clair |first=Rex |title=A history of the New Zealand Medical Association |publisher=Butterworths |year=1987 |isbn=0409787795 |location=Wellington |pages=69-72, 196}}</ref> as president of the New Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association from 1907 to 1908,<ref name=":3" /> and surgeon-in-chief to St Johns Ambulance from 1936 to 1946.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":12" />
Barnett retired in 1924.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":12" /> In retirement he lived in Hampden where he is commemorated with a plaque outside his house.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 November 2013 |title=Surgeon's home marked by more durable plaque |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/north-otago/surgeons-home-marked-more-durable-plaque |access-date=11 August 2025 |website=Otago Daily Times |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=13 November 2013 |title=Family gathers to honour college of surgeons founder |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/north-otago/family-gathers-honour-college-surgeons-founder |access-date=11 August 2025 |website=Otago Daily Times |language=en}}</ref>
== Personal life == Barnett married Mabel Violet Fulton, daughter of Catherine Fulton and James Fulton, on 31 December 1892. They had five children:<ref name=":0" /> sons Ralph, Miles Barnett, Sir Denis Barnett and Dr Geoffrey Barnett, and daughter Marjorie.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=23 July 2020 |title=One family; generations of discovery |url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroom/one-family-generations-of-discovery |access-date=2025-08-11 |website=www.otago.ac.nz |language=en}}</ref>
== Honours and awards == Barnett was awarded the CMG in 1918 for his war service.<ref name=":1" /> He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1927 King's Birthday Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33280 |date=3 June 1927 |page=3604 |supp=y}}</ref> In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.<ref name="EP">{{cite news | url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19350506.2.12 | title=Official jubilee medals | date=6 May 1935 | work= Evening Post | accessdate=2 July 2013 | page=4 }}</ref>
== Death and legacy == On his retirement Barnett endowed the Ralph Barnett Chair in Surgery at the University of Otago in memory of his son who was killed in World War I.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=29 October 1946 |title=An outstanding citizen |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19461029.2.58 |access-date=11 August 2025 |work=Evening Star |pages=6}}</ref> He also made donations to the University's medical library, a sports ground at Logan Park and a lamp of remembrance at Wellington College.<ref name=":0" /> Barnett died on 28 October 1946.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Wright St Clair |first=Rex |url=https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/external/WrightSt-Clair-HistoriaNuncVivat.pdf |title=Historia nunc vivat : medical practitioners in New Zealand, 1840 to 1930 |publisher=Cotter Medical History Trust |year=2013 |isbn=9780473240738 |location=Christchurch |pages=46}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Louis Edward}} Category:1865 births Category:1946 deaths Category:New Zealand Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:New Zealand surgeons Category:New Zealand Knights Bachelor Category:University of Otago alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Otago Category:People from Wellington City