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Gavin Milroy was born in 1805, in Edinburgh, the son of a silversmith. He was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, before entering the city's university to study medicine. He qualified licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1824, and graduated MD from the university in 1828. He was a founder member of the Hunterian Society of Edinburgh.
Rather than enter into practice, Milroy enlisted as a medical officer in the Government Packet Service to the West Indies and the Mediterranean. On his return he was attracted to medical journalism, and from 1844-47 was co-editor of the Medico-Chirurgical Review. Milroy's detailed commentary on a French report on `Plague and Quarantine' was published in the Review in October 1846. In the article he advocated the abolition of quarantine, and the dependence on sanitary measures alone for protection from foreign diseases. Milroy was consequently acknowledged as an expert on epidemiology and was employed on several Government commissions of inspection and enquiry. From 1849-50 he acted as a superintendent medical inspector of the General Board of Health. Milroy was a member of the Medical and Chirurgical Society, and played an active role in establishing the Epidemiological Society of London in 1850.
In 1852 he went to Jamaica for the Colonial Office, to investigate a cholera epidemic. He presented to the authorities a report which charted the origin and progress of the epidemic, gave details of the social conditions of the natives, and made recommendations for sanitary measures. In 1853 he was elected fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. For the next two years, 1853-55, he was again medical inspector for the General Board of Health. From 1855-56, during the Crimean War, he served on the Sanitary Commission inspecting the British troops in the field. The reports, written by Milroy and his colleague John Sutherland, from the Board of Health, did influence subsequent reforms, although at the time the Army Medical Department had insufficient authority to institute the necessary changes.
In 1858 Milroy was honorary secretary of a committee appointed by the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science to enquire into the question of quarantine worldwide. As secretary Milroy assimilated and digested the results, and communicated them to the Board of Trade. The committee's findings were incorporated into three parliamentary papers, 1860-61. The papers contained information not only on the laws and practice of quarantine, but also on the appearance and prevalence of the diseases for which quarantine was being imposed throughout the world. Milroy was secretary of the Epidemiological Society, 1862-64, and then its president, 1864-66.
Milroy was a member of the committee of the Royal College of Physicians, appointed at the request of the Colonial Office in 1862, to examine the spread of leprosy. The committee's report of 1867 included an appendix by Milroy giving suggestions, entitled Notes respecting the Leprosy of Scripture'. Other contributions to medical literature included the article onPlague' in Sir John Russell Reynold's System of Medicine (1866-79), many articles for The Lancet, and many other anonymous articles in various medical journals. It has been said of Milroy that he was `a modest, unassuming man, of sound judgment, and considerable intellectual powers' (DNB, 1894, p.23). In 1871 Milroy was awarded a civil list pension of £100 a year by the Government.
In later years he lived at Richmond, Surrey. His wife Sophia (nee Chapman) died about three years before her husband. Milroy died at Richmond on 11 January 1886, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. He bequeathed to the College £2,000 to found the Milroy Lectureship on state medicine and public health, and accompanied the bequest with a memorandum of suggestions.
Publications:
Quarantine and the Plague, being a Summary of the Report on these Subjects recently addressed to the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris, with Introductory Observations, Extracts from Parliamentary Correspondence, and Notes (London, 1846)
Abstract of Regulations in Force in Foreign Countries respecting Quarantine (Parliamentary Papers no.568, 25 August 1860); Abstracts of Information concerning the Laws of Quarantine (Parliamentary Papers no.568-1, 21 August 1860); Papers relating to Quarantine (Parliamentary Papers no.544, 6 August 1861)