Thomas Valintine

Thomas Harcourt Ambrose Valintine (1 August 1865 – 30 August 1945) was a New Zealand medical doctor and public health administrator, who spent the first three decades of the 20th century dedicated to public health. He was responsible for major tuberculosis treatment initiatives in New Zealand, the introduction of district nursing and a pioneering health education campaign. He graduated with medical and surgical qualifications and a Royal College of Physicians Diploma in Public Health at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. He later qualified as a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecarie (LSA).

Career Valintine commenced his career working in the West Sussex Hospital and a Portsmouth asylum before emigrating to New Zealand in 1891.

Valintine took an interest in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB), campaigning for a sanatorium in Ōtaki in 1904 and for hospital TB annexes in other towns and districts. After the war he remained with the Defence Department, conducting an inquiry into a 1916 outbreak of respiratory diseases at the Trentham Military Camp.

Valentine retired in 1930. He died in Wanganui on 30 August 1945.

Personal life Valentine married Margaret Ellis McTaggart in New Plymouth in 1891. They had two daughters and a son but Margaret died from a complication of pregnancy in 1910. In 1911 Valentine married his second wife Barbara Vickers in Christchurch. He had seven children in all.