Simon , Sir , John , 1816-1904 , surgeon

John Simon was born 10 October 1816 and educated in England and Germany. In 1833, he was became a pupil apprentice to Mr Green at St Thomas's Hospital. In 1838, he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1938 and was elected a fellow in 1844. Simon was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at King's College London, a post he held for nine years, and was Assistant Surgeon at King's College Hospital from 1840 to 1847. In 1844, he won the Astley Cooper Prize for his illustrated essay on the thymus gland. Electoed Fellow of the Royal Society, 1845.
In 1847, Simon was appointed lecturer in Pathology at St Thomas's Hospital, where he was also Surgeon from 1853-1876. He was Officer of Health to the City of London, 1848-1855; Chief Medical Officer of Health to the General Board of Health, 1855-; member of the Privy Council, 1858-1876; President, Royal College of Surgeons, 1878-1879; President, Royal Society, 1879-1880. Simon built up a state medical department for public health and developed the vaccination system, and was particularly concerned with eradicating the smallpox virus; influential in bringing about the Sanitary Act, 1866 and Public Health Act, 1875. Awarded KCB 1887 (CB 1876); In 1848 Simon married Jane O'Meara (died 1901). He retired in 1876, and died 23 July 1904.
Publications include: A Physiological Essay on the Thymus Gland (London, 1845); General Pathology, as conducive to the establishment of rational principles for the diagnosis and treatment of disease (London, 1850); Report on the Sanitary Condition of the City of London, for the year 1853-4 (London, 1854); Report on the last two Cholera-epidemics of London, as affected by the consumption of impure water (Stationery Office, London, 1856); Inflammation in T Holmes A System of Surgery, ... in treatises by various authors, vol 1 (1860); English Sanitary Institutions, reviewed in their course of development, and in some of their political and social relations (Cassell & Co, London, 1890).