George Godber

Last updated

Sir

George Godber

GCB
Sir George Edward Godber.jpg
Born(1908-08-04)4 August 1908
Died7 February 2009(2009-02-07) (aged 100)
Known for Chief Medical Officer, England

Sir George Edward Godber GCB (4 August 1908 – 7 February 2009) served as Chief Medical Officer for Her Majesty's Government in England from 1960 to 1973. [1] He was also part of the team that planned the National Health Service (NHS) and, as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and subsequently Chief Medical Officer, campaigned against smoking and for immunization against polio and diphtheria. [2] He was chair of the committee that published the three Cogwheel Reports on the organisation of work in hospitals. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Godber was born on 4 August 1908, the son of Bessie Maud (née Chapman) and Isaac Godber, a nurseryman in Willington, Bedfordshire; [4] 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. [5]

Godber was educated at Bedford Modern School between 1917 and 1920, [6] at Bedford School between 1920 and 1927, [7] and at New College, Oxford, where he read medicine, gained a rowing blue and took part in two losing boat races. [4] He was partly inspired to pursue public health by his Warden, the historian H.A.L. Fisher, who had been Lloyd George's Education Secretary. [8]

Another mentor was a young New College don, Richard Crossman, who was later to become Godber's Secretary of State for Health and Social Security. [8] He did his clinical training at The London Hospital and qualified in 1933. [9]

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, [10] convincing him that a state-funded health service based on need was required. [11]

Limited by the lack of medical specialties afforded to him with the loss of his eye and due to his aversion to taking fees from patients, [12] he decided to specialise in public health medicine and attended the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, earning a diploma in public health in 1936. [9]

In 1937, Godber became a county medical officer in Surrey, where he worked on communicable diseases. [8] In 1939, he joined the Ministry of Health as a medical officer. [9] During World War II, he worked in Birmingham administering the wartime Emergency Medical Services.

Godber served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer from 1950 to 1960. [13] He was instrumental in persuading the Royal College of Physicians to form a committee on smoking and lung cancer in 1958. [13] Their report Smoking and Health, published in 1962, was influential in bringing the link to the attention of the public. [13]

Godber was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Bath in 1979. [13] 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. [13]

Family life

A number of Godber's siblings distinguished themselves in later life:

Related Research Articles

In the United Kingdom, a Chief Medical Officer (CMO) is the most senior government advisor on matter relating to health. There are four CMOs in the United Kingdom who are appointed to advise their respective governments:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedfordshire Police</span> English territorial police force

Bedfordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire in England, which includes the unitary authorities of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton. Its headquarters are in the town of Kempston in Bedford Borough.

Sir Kenneth Charles Calman, HonFAcadMEd is a Scottish doctor and academic who formerly worked as a surgeon, oncologist and cancer researcher and held the position of Chief Medical Officer of Scotland, and then England. He was Warden and Vice-Chancellor of Durham University from 1998 to 2006 before becoming Chancellor of the University of Glasgow. He held the position of Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute from 2008 until 2011. From 2008 to 2009, he was convener of the Calman Commission on Scottish devolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Godber</span> British politician

Joseph Bradshaw Godber, Baron Godber of Willington, was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Grantham from 1951 to 1979 and held ministerial posts in the governments of Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, and Edward Heath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Harpur</span>

Sir William Harpur was an English merchant and philanthropist who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1561. Born in Bedford, he moved to London and amassed a large fortune. In 1566, Harpur and his wife Alice gave an financial endowment to support several charities including ones focused on education. The endowment eventually became the Harpur Trust, which supports four independent schools in Bedford today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Newman (physician)</span> English physician (1870–1948)

Sir George Newman was an English public health physician, Quaker, the first Chief Medical Officer to the Ministry of Health in England, and wrote a seminal treatise on the social problems causing infant mortality.

Ernest Desmond Dynes CBE was an English cricketer in the 1920s and 1930s and later a Brigadier in the British Army and an Aide-de-Camp to Queen Elizabeth II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Tizard</span> British paediatrician (1916–1993)

Sir John Peter Mills Tizard was a British paediatrician and professor at the University of Oxford. Tizard was principally notable for important research into neonatology and paediatric neurology and being a founder member of the Neonatal Society in 1959. Tizard was considered the most distinguished academic children's physician of his generation.

Godber is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Yellowlees</span> British physician

Sir Henry Yellowlees was a British physician who was Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the United Kingdom from 1973 to 1984.

Sir Terence John Stephenson, is a Northern Irish consultant paediatric doctor and chair of the Health Research Authority (HRA). He is also the Nuffield Professor of Child Health at University College London (UCL). Stephenson was most notable for guiding the RCPCH in agreeing 10 published national standards, Facing the Future: Standards for Paediatric Services. This was the first time the College committed publicly to a defined set of standards for all children receiving inpatient care or assessment across the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. T. Godber</span>

William Thomas Godber CBE was an English authority on agriculture and agricultural engineering, an adviser to the British Government on agricultural matters, former President of the East of England Agricultural Society, former Chairman of the Bedfordshire Agricultural Executive Committee and the Farmers' Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weldon Dalrymple-Champneys</span>

Sir Weldon Dalrymple-Champneys, 2nd Baronet was a British physician who was a leading figure in the public health service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. Blackham</span> British Army Major-General

Major-General Robert James Blackham (1868–1951) was a barrister, medical doctor, writer, and officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

The Venerable Thomas Hooton Michael Dix ARCO was Archdeacon of Zanzibar and Priest in Charge of Christ Church Cathedral, Zanzibar between 1954 and 1959. In 1970 he was made Hon. Canon of St Albans Cathedral and, in 1974, Canon (Emeritus) of St Albans Cathedral.

Joyce Godber (1906-1999) was the county archivist of Bedfordshire and the author of a number of books about the history of that county.

Sir Edward Gostwick, 2nd Baronet was an English aristocrat.

The Cogwheel Report (1967) or Report of the Joint Working Party on the Organisation of Medical Work in Hospitals was the report of a committee appointed by the Ministry of Health and chaired by George Godber to investigate the organisation of doctors in hospitals in England and Wales. It recommended arranging medical work by clinical divisions.

References

  1. ↑ "Godber, Sir George (Edward), (4 Aug. 1908–7 Feb. 2009), Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health and Social Security, Department of Education and Science, and Home Office, 1960–73" . WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U17325. ISBN   978-0-19-954089-1.
  2. ↑ Klein, Rudolf (3 October 1990). "The state and the profession: the politics of the double bed". British Medical Journal. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Rivett, Geoffrey. "1968–1977: Rethinking the National Health Service". The history of the NHS. Nuffield Trust. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Godber, Sir George Edward (1908 - 2009)". livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  5. ↑ Godber, George (21 November 1987). "Living with one eye". British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Ed.). 295 (6609): 1351. doi:10.1136/bmj.295.6609.1351-c. ISSN   0267-0623. PMC   1248421 .
  6. ↑ Joyce Godber, The Harpur Trust 1552–1973, 1973, p.169
  7. ↑ Obituary, The Ousel, 2009, pp. 167–168
  8. 1 2 3 "Sir George Godber: Government's Chief Medical Officer who helped to". The Independent. 12 February 2009. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 Richmond, Caroline (18 February 2009). "George Godber". BMJ. 338: b710. doi:10.1136/bmj.b710. ISSN   1468-5833. S2CID   220106722.
  10. ↑ "Munks Roll Details for George Edward (Sir) Godber". munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  11. ↑ "Sir George Godber". The Daily Telegraph. 10 February 2009. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  12. ↑ "Papers of: Godber, Sir George (b 1908) - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sir George Godber". 10 February 2009. Retrieved 28 June 2019– via telegraph.co.uk.
  14. 1 2 Obituary in The Times , Mr W.T. Godber, 24 April 1981, p.14
  15. ↑ "SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE" (PDF). 10 June 1967. p. 6278.
  16. ↑ "Results for 'au:Godber, Joyce.' [WorldCat.org]". worldcat.org. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  17. ↑ "Private Papers R J Godber (Documents.20966)". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  18. ↑ "GODBER, Geoffrey Chapman (1912–1999), DL; Chief Executive, West Sussex County Council, 1974–75, retired (Clerk of the Peace and Clerk to the Council, 1966–74); Clerk to the Lieutenancy of West Sussex, 1974–76 (Sussex, 1968–74)" . Retrieved 7 February 2016.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.