Sir George Edward Godber (4 August 1908 – 7 February 2009) served as
Chief Medical Officer for Her Majesty's Government in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
from 1960 to 1973. He was also part of the team that planned the
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
(NHS) and, as deputy Chief Medical Officer and subsequently Chief Medical officer, campaigned against smoking and for immunization against polio and diphtheria.
Early life and education
Godber was born on 4 August 1908, the son of Bessie Maud (née Chapman) and Isaac Godber, a
nurseryman
A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general p ...
in
Willington,
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...
;
he was the third of seven children, 5 boys and 2 girls. When he was eleven he lost sight in one eye due to an accident.
Godber was educated at
Bedford Modern School
Bedford Modern School (often called BMS) is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in The Harpur Trust, born from the endowments left by Sir William Harpur in the six ...
between 1917 and 1920, at
Bedford School between 1920 and 1927, and at
New College, Oxford, where he read medicine, gained a rowing blue and took part in two losing boat races.
He was partly inspired to pursue the public health by his Warden, the historian
H.A.L. Fisher who had been
Lloyd George's Education Secretary.
Another mentor was a young New College
don
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
*Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vill ...
,
Richard Crossman
Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (15 December 1907 – 5 April 1974) was a British Labour Party politician. A university classics lecturer by profession, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1945 and became a significant figure among the ...
, who was later to become Godber's Secretary of State for Health and Social Security.
He did his clinical training at The
London Hospital
The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and sp ...
and qualified in 1933.
Career
After completing his clinical training, Godber was employed in a variety of junior posts that gave him an insight into the state of the nation's health. At a casualty ward in a municipal hospital in
London's Docklands, he found that many of his patients were people with serious diseases who were too poor to go to their
GP and too proud to ask for a free service, convincing him that a state-funded health service based on need was required.
Limited by the lack of medical specialties afforded to him with the loss of his eye, and due to his aversion of taking fees from patients,
he decided to specialise in public health medicine and attended the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a member institution of the University of London that specialises in public health and tropical medicine.
The inst ...
, earning a diploma in
public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
in 1936.
In 1937, Godber became a county medical officer in
Surrey where he worked on
communicable diseases
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dis ...
.
In 1939 he joined the
Ministry of Health as a medical officer.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
he worked in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
administering the wartime
Emergency Medical Services
Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...
.
Godber served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer from 1950 to 1960.
He was instrumental is persuading the
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...
to form a committee on smoking and lung cancer in 1958.
Their repor
Smoking and Health published in 1962, was important in bringing the link to the attention of the public.
Godber was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the
University of Bath
(Virgil, Georgics II)
, mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind
, established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...
in 1979.
He was appointed CB in 1958, KCB in 1962 and GCB in 1971. Godber celebrated his 100th birthday in August 2008 and died on 7 February 2009.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
''Bedford Today''(mentions his 100th birthday)
Obituary in ''The Times''Obituary in ''The Guardian''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godber, George
1908 births
2009 deaths
British centenarians
Men centenarians
People from Bedford
People educated at Bedford Modern School
People educated at Bedford School
Alumni of New College, Oxford
Oxford University Boat Club rowers
Chief Medical Officers for England
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...
Léon Bernard Foundation Prize laureates