(Contributed by David Rogers, General Surgeon FRCP [brother-in–law])
Mervyn was born in Cambridge, UK. His early years were spent in Armadale, Australia, where his father Canon Archdall headed a theological college. His later formative years were spent in Auckland where he attended Kings College - his father was now headmaster there..
He also enjoyed three years at the Otago Medical School and then finished his medical training in England; then he spent two years at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh to obtain the MRCP. As a registrar at Southend on Sea he enlisted in the eighth army and saw service in the desert, then back to England for the D Day invasion and ended up in Germany.
Then as ship’s surgeon he travelled back to Auckland, where he was appointed to the consultant staff of Green Lane Hospital as a physician specialising in gerontology and in private practice with a major interest in medical insurance.
He married Peg Brown in 1950 and they had two daughters. Mervyn was a good physician, he was also a gentleman always immaculately attired, who enjoyed gardening, trout fishing, architecture and design and painting landscapes.