Perry , Sir , Edwin Cooper , 1856-1938 , physician

Born 10 Sept, 1856, the son of the Rev E C Perry, Vicar of Seighford, Staffordshire. Educated at home; Mr Gascoigne's School at Spondon, Derbyshire; King's Scholar at Eton College, 1870; King's College Cambridge. Obtained BA in Classics, Cambridge, 1880, MA 1883. In 1880, having been elected a Fellow of King's he became a medical student, and in 1883 he was appointed assistant lecturer in medical sciences at King's and assistand demonstrator of anatomy in the Cambridge medical school. He entered the London Hospital, 1885, qualified MRCS Eng 1885; FRCP Lond, 1894, MRCP 1889. He subsequently held the posts of house surgeon to Sir Frederick Treves and house physician to Sir Stephen Mackenzie.
In 1887 Perry was appointed an assistant physician at Guy's Hospital London, and Dean of the Medical School, 1888. He was also partly responsible for the establishment of the Dental School at Guy's, which opened in 1889. In 1892, he was appointed Superintendent of the Hospital, an office he held until 1920, and a Governor from 1920-1937.
He served on the Senate of the University of London, 1900-1905, 1915-1919, and was Vice Chancellor, 1917-1919, and Principal 1920-1926.
Perry was also concerned in the reorganisation of the nursing staff, and the formation of the (Royal) College of Nursing, of which he was Honorary Secretary until 1935. Also the provision of accommodation for nurses at the hospital, which resulted in the Henriette Raphael Nurses' Home, opened in 1902. Another interest was the standard of education in massage, and gave assistance in the foundation of the Society of Masseuses, 1894, incorporated in 1900. He was chairman of the Council of the Chartered Society of Massage and Medical Gymnastics, 1920-1929, and a School of Massage began at Guy's Hospital 1914. He died on 17 Dec 1938.