Glenys Arthur

Glenys Patricia Arthur (née Smart; 1 May 1936 – 20 May 2022) was a New Zealand neurologist. She campaigned for the rights of women medical practitioners, and was the first woman to serve on the executive of the New Zealand Medical Association, between 1983 and 1989. She was a co-founder of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Medical Women's Association, and twice served as the association's national president. In 1989, she was elected to the Wellington Area Health Board.

Early life and family Born Glenys Patrica Smart in Dunedin on 1 May 1936, Arthur was the daughter of Florence Agnes Smart (née Garland) and David Douglas Smart. She was educated at Hokitika District High School, before beginning medical studies at the University of Otago in 1954, against the wishes of her father, who felt that she should study teaching or home science, or become an apprentice pharmacist. She met her future husband, Athol Bruce Arthur, also a medical student, on her first day at medical school, and they eventually married in 1959.

Career Arthur worked as a house surgeon and then part-time registrar at Waikato Hospital between 1961 and 1963. Her husband obtained a fellowship to undertake specialist training in paediatrics in London, but Arthur, having recently given birth to their first child, was initially unable to travel there with him. A year later, she obtained passage as a ship's surgeon on a cargo ship.

In 1971, Arthur was a co-founder of the Wellington division of the New Zealand Medical Women's Association, and she went on to serve two terms as the organisation's national president. Between 1981 and 1984, she was president of the New Zealand Rehabilitation Association.

Arthur was elected as the highest-polling candidate to be a member of the Wellington Area Health Board in 1989, serving until elected members of area health boards were replaced by appointed commissioners by the National Government in 1991. She died in Wellington on 20 May 2022, and was survived by her husband and one of their two children.