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History
Sir George Godber pursued a distinguished career in health planning and education, and was closely involved in the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS). After training at the London Hospital and the London School of Hygiene, he became a Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health (MoH) in 1939. According to an interview with Anthony Seldon of the British Library of Political and Economic Science (see GB0121 GC/201/D.2), Godber wanted to work in medicine but did not want to take fees from patients. As he felt certain that there would be a National Health Service, he entered public health medicine in order to get into the MoH which, he presumed, would have the task of organising the NHS.
In the early 1940s Godber undertook a survey of hospitals in the Sheffield and Midlands area as part of a series of MoH regional hospital surveys (see GB0121 GC/201/A.4/1 for his draft survey). This work brought him to the heart of the re-organisation of the hospital side of the future health service. In 1950 he became Deputy Chief Medical Officer, MoH, and from 1960 to 1973 he was Chief Medical Officer at the MoH's successor departments, the Department of Health and Social Security, the Department of Education and Science, and the Home Office. Godber was Chairman of the Health Education Council from 1977 to 1978, and became a Fellow of many organisations, including the American Hospital Association and the American Public Health Association. He was appointed Knight Commander Order of the Bath in 1962, and Knight Grand Cross of the Bath in 1971. He married Norma Hathorne Rainey in 1935.