Sir Henry Kenneth Cowan

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

LLD (1900–1971) was an Irish-born physician and dietary expert. He wrote several books on the subject of nutrition and his expertise was used by the British government during the

Second World War 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 opposin ...

. He served as Chief Medical Officer to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

for a decade (1954–64).

Life

He was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

on 17 June 1900 the son of Henry Cowan and Margaret Cowan nee Curran. He attended the

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...

and then the

University of Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

, graduating in 1921. He then studied Public Health at postgraduate level, receiving a Diploma in Public Health in 1924. He received his medical degree (MD) in 1925 and appears to have operated for around ten years as a general practitioner. From 1937 to 1949 he was County Medical Officer of Health to Gloucester. From 1949 to 1954 he served the same role for the county of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. From 1954 until retiral in 1964 he was Chief Medical Officer to the Department of Health in Scotland. In 1956 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Scotland The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

his proposers including J. Norman Davidson,

Norman Feather Norman Feather FRS FRSE PRSE (16 November 1904 – 14 August 1978), was an English nuclear physicist. Feather and Egon Bretscher were working at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge in 1940, when they proposed that the 239 isotope of element 9 ...

and

Douglas Guthrie Douglas James Guthrie FRSE FRCS FRCP FRCSEd FRCPE (8 September 1885 – 8 June 1975) was a Scottish medical doctor, otolaryngologist and historian of medicine. After graduating in Medicine from Edinburgh University, he pursued postgraduate stu ...

. In the 1957-8 New Years Honours List he was created a Knight for his services to British health.The London Gazette: 31 December 1957 In 1964

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters (LLD). He died in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

on 16 June 1971.

Family

He married twice: firstly in 1933 to Elinor Margaret Graham; secondly, following Elinor’s death in 1966, he married in his old age (1970) to a widow, Mrs J. C. McMillan. He had no children.

Publications

*''Communal Dietaries in War-Time'' *''The Health Services in the County of Essex'' (1953) *''Glasgow’s X-Ray Campaign against Tuberculosis'' (1957) *''The Climate of Health'' (1959)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan, Henry Kenneth 1900 births 1971 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Medical doctors from Belfast Alumni of Queen's University Belfast