John Simon (pathologist)

English pathologist, surgeon and public health officer

Sir

John Simon

KCB FRS FRCS

Lithograph of John Simon by Charles Baugniet (1848)

Born| (1816-10-10)October 10, 1816

London, England

Died| July 23, 1904(1904-07-23) (aged 87)

London, England

Occupation| Chief Medical Officer
Signature

John Simon in 1881 Blue plaque, 40 Kensington Square, Kensington, London

Sir John Simon KCB FRS FRCS (10 October 1816 – 23 July 1904) was an English pathologist, surgeon and public health officer. He was the first Chief Medical Officer for Her Majesty's Government from 1855 to 1876.

## Biography

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John Simon was born in London to Louis Michael Simon, a stockbroker, and Mathilde (née Nonnet).[1] He was the sixth of Louis' fourteen children by two marriages.[2] His medical career began in 1833 when he became an apprentice to surgeon Joseph Henry Green and he was educated at King's College and St Thomas' Hospital in London.[1][2] In 1838 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.[3] In 1845 he won the Astley Cooper Prize for an essay entitled "Physiological Essay on the Thymus Gland"; he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) the same year.[1]

In the mid-19th century, the government took measures to promote public health; the Public Health Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 63) was passed and a General Board of Health was created. The same year, Simon was appointed the Medical Officer of Health for London for the City of London's commission of sewers; this was only the second health officer appointment in the country (William Henry Duncan had become Medical Officer for Health in Liverpool the previous year).[1][3] He served in this position until 1855. The General Board of Health was reorganised in 1853, and Simon became the board's Chief Medical Officer in 1855.[1][4] The General Board only lasted until 1858; on its dissolution, Simon's role as Chief Medical Officer transferred to the Privy Council.[4]

From 1867 to 1869 he was President of the Pathological Society of London.[5]

He married, in 1848, Jane O´Meara, daughter of Deputy Commissioner-General Matthew Delaval O´Meara. Lady Simon died aged 85 in London 19 August 1901.[6]

Simon died on 23 July 1904 in London and was buried at Ladywell Cemetery in Lewisham.[1]

## Recognition

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John Simon's name as it appears on the LSHTM Frieze

Simon's name features on the Frieze of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Twenty-three names of public health and tropical medicine pioneers were chosen to feature on the School building in Keppel Street when it was constructed in 1926.[7]

## Publications

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* English Sanitary Institutions, London: Cassell & company, 1890, OCLC 612812353

## References

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Footnotes

1. ^ a b c d e f Hamlin, Christopher (2004). "Simon, Sir John (1816–1904)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36097. Retrieved 12 October 2011. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. ^ a b "Simon, Sir John (1816–1904)", Catalogues of the Surgeon General's Library, Royal College of Surgeons, 2006, retrieved 12 October 2011
3. ^ a b Schneider, p. 193
4. ^ a b Clay, p. 32
5. ^ "Transactions of the Pathological Society". Retrieved 27 October 2012.
6. ^ "Obituary". The Times. No. 36539\. London. 21 August 1901. p. 8.
7. ^ "Behind the Frieze". Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.

Sources

* Clay, Henry Hurrell; Bassett, W. H. (1999), Clay's Handbook of Environmental Health, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-419-22960-4
* Schneider, Dona (2008), Public Health: The Development of a Discipline, Volume 1, Rutgers University Press, ISBN 978-0-8135-4232-4

## Further reading

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* Lambert, Royston (1963), Sir John Simon, 1816–1904, and English Social Administration, London: MacGibbon & Kee, OCLC 185550491
* Sheard, Sally (2006), The Nation's Doctor, London: The Nuffield Trust

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Simon (pathologist).

* Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Simon, Sir John" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
* Sir John Simon

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