Among his previous books is The mantle of surgery: the history, published in 2002, of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons; he had been a vice-president of the College 1983-85. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and England, and was a Hunterian Professor of the English College in 2002. In 1973 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship; and in recent years he has spoken at meetings of the Churchill Centre in Woodford and at Chartwell. He was Director of Medical Services at Home Command in Wellington, New Zealand 1971-76, and Colonel Commandant of his Corps 1986-90. He was awarded a military OBE in 1971, and the Efficiency Decoration in 1974. He was made CNZM in 2005.