William Sands Cox (1802 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. ...

– 23 December 1875 in

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a tributary of the River Sowe, which joins the ...

) was a surgeon in

, England. He founded Birmingham's first medical school in 1825 as a residential Anglican-based college in Temple Row, where a blue plaque commemorates him on the House of Fraser department store, and in Brittle Street (now obliterated by Snow Hill station). Cox went on to found the Queen's Hospital in Bath Row ( Drury & Bateman, opened 1841) as a practical resource for his medical students. Blue plaque William Sands Cox

The Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery became the Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery in 1836 and then the Queen's College in 1843 by

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...

. Cox's ambition was for the college to teach arts, law, engineering, architecture and general science as well as medicine, surgery and theology. However, after a major split in the organisation, the non-theological departments moved off into

Mason Science College Mason Science College was a university college in Birmingham, England, and a predecessor college of Birmingham University. Founded in 1875 by industrialist and philanthropist Sir Josiah Mason, the college was incorporated into the University o ...

which later became the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

leaving the name Queen's College as a theological institution. An archive collection of Cox's papers is held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.

Notes

References

*''A History of the County of Warwick, Volume 7 – The City of Birmingham'', ed W. B. Stephens, University of London Institute of Historical Research, Oxford University Press, 1964 *''The Making of Birmingham: Being a History of the Rise and Growth of the Midland Metropolis'', Robert K. Dent, Published by J. L. Allday, 1894 *''Men of the Time'', 1875

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, William Sands English surgeons History of Birmingham, West Midlands 1802 births 1875 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Academics of the University of Birmingham

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