Jameson , Sir , William Wilson , 1885-1962 , Knight , Professor of Public Health

Jameson , Sir , William Wilson , 1885-1962 , Knight , Professor of Public Health

Sir William Wilson Jameson was born in 1885; educated at Aberdeen University and University College London, graduating in arts at Aberdeen in 1905 and qualified MB Ch.B at Marischal College in 1909. After resident posts in London hospitals he obtained the DPH in 1914. Henry Kenwood, on the outlook for talent for his department as Professor of Hygiene at University College London appointed him assistant lecturer in the same year; the two men then shared academic and wartime duties throughout World War One.

Jameson served in France, Italy, and at Aldershot as Specialist Sanitary Officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps, deputising in between teaching duties and the running of the department for Kenwood during the latter's absences serving with the Army Medical Advisory Board. Demobilised in 1919, Jameson then spent almost 10 years as MOH in Finchley and St Marylebone, and writing Synopsis of Hygiene (1st ed. 1920), with G S Parkinson. Appointed to the new Chair of Public Health at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, January 1929, he managed his new responsibilities as Professor, Head of Division, and Dean of the School with the consummate skill and tact needed within the new School.

Jameson was appointed Dean after the death of Sir Andrew Balfour in 1931, a position he held for nine years until he was appointed Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health in 1940, a position he held for ten years. His further very distinguished career included decisive influence on the creation of the National Health Service through his links with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. For a time he acted part-time as Medical Advisor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He travelled widely in the tropics and visited Uganda and West Africa where his advice on many matters was been sought, so he was also of great service to tropical medicine. He was the Harveian Orator of the Royal College of Physicians in 1942 and he received the Bisset Hawkins Medal in 1950. He served on the General Medical Council from 1942-1947. Jameson was knighted, 1939; Knight Commander of the Bath, 1943 and Knight Grand Cross Order of the British Empire, 1949. Jameson died in 1962.

Publications include A synopsis of hygiene by W. W. Jameson and G. S. Parkinson (Churchill, London, 1936).