Edward Petronell Manby (1864-1929) was highly regarded medical officer at the Ministry of Health with an unparalleled knowledge of

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

medicine.

Early life

Edward Manby was born on 19 August 1864, the youngest son of Frederick Manby MD and his wife Catherine Reeve. Manby was born into a family of physicians in

East Rudham East Rudham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located north-east of King's Lynn and north-west of Norwich. History East Rudham's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for 'R ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, where both his father and his grandfather had practised. Along with two of his elder brothers, he attended

Epsom College Epsom College is a co-educational independent school on Epsom Downs, Surrey, England, for pupils aged 11 to 18. It was founded in 1853 as a boys' school to provide support for poor members of the medical profession such as pensioners and orpha ...

, founded in 1853 to provide a "liberal education" to 100 sons of "duly qualified medical men" for £25 each year. His elder brother, Alan Reeve Manby, was Surgeon-Apothecary In Ordinary to the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places * Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia * Sandringham, Queensland, Australia * Sandringham, Victoria, Australia **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station **Electoral district of Sandringham * Sand ...

and later

Physician Extraordinary A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. His eldest sibling,

Frederic Edward Manby General surgeon Frederic Edward Manby, FRCS LRA Justice of the peace#England and Wales, JP (19 January 1845 – 1 July 1891), served as Mayor of Wolverhampton, 1888/89. Medical Manby studied at King's College London School of Medicine, Guy's Hos ...

was appointed Surgeon to the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire General Hospital and served as Mayor of

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

, 1888/89.

Career

After leaving Epsom College in 1881, he received his medical education at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

and

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

, achieving MRCS in 1886, MD in 1891 and a Department of Health & Primary Care (DPH)

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1894. In the early 1890s he was working as a doctor in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, living at 1 Upper Parliament Street and by 1897 he was the Assistant Port Sanitary Medical Officer, the first of several local and central government advisory appointments. He returned to London at the turn of the century, and by 1901 was living at 121 Victoria Street. He was appointed as medical officer of the Fountain Fever Hospital in

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre- Saxon times ...

, of the

Metropolitan Asylums Board The Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) was established under Poor Law legislation to deal with London's sick and poor. It was established by the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 and dissolved in 1930, when its functions were transferred to the London Count ...

, examiner in Public Health for

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

Universities, and also enjoyed membership of the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

and the

Honourable Society of the Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn a ...

. His final appointment was as a medical officer at the Ministry of Health, where he became an expert in metropolitan hospitals catering for the poor. A colleague, Dr. F. N. Kay Menzies, gave this eulogy, "Manby knew more about Poor Law medical work than almost any other medical man in existence, and therefore the fact that he has been lost to the service is nothing less than a national misfortune, more especially in view of the coming into operation on April 1st next of the Local Government Act, 1929”.

Family life and death

Grave of Edward Petronell in the western side of Highgate Cemetery

Manby married when he was 47, in 1912, to Mary Bruce and they had one son, John Edward (Jack) (1914-1993). Edward Petronell Manby died on 20 September 1929, and is buried with Mary, who died in 1960, on the west side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manby, Edward Petronell 1864 births 1929 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery English surgeons People of the Victorian era People from Norfolk