Stock , Philip Graham , 1876-1975 , physician

Born, 1 April 1876, Clifton, Bristol; educated at Clifton School, before entering Bristol University and then the Bristol Royal Infirmary to study medicine. He graduated in 1900, and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians; immediately after graduating Stock joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC); posted to South Africa, where he was appointed Regimental Medical Officer with the 8th Hussars; South Africa, 1902-1914, holding various medical posts including Medical Officer of Health of Johannesburg, where he was responsible for the underground sanitation of the gold mines; Director of Medical Services of the Union of South Africa, 1913; organised the medical services for the force invading German South-West Africa, 1914; introduced compulsory anti-typhoid inoculations for the entire force; towards the end of the Southwest African campaign Stock reorganised medical services for the South African contingent in Europe; recalled to German East Africa in 1917, where there were high casualties from disease, and reorganised the medical services there.

He returned to Europe in 1918, and served in France as Officer Commanding a General Hospital, and as Medical Adviser on Native Labour; member of the Inter-Allied Sanitary Conference 1917-18; received the CB and CBE, and was mentioned in dispatches; admitted to the honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; joined the newly formed Ministry of Health, 1920; between the two World Wars, Stock undertook epidemiological work, investigating outbreaks of plague, cholera, typhus, malaria and other diseases; his main interest was in port sanitation and international quarantine conventions, becoming a leading world expert on the subject; represented South Africa at the twice-yearly meetings in Paris of the Office Internationale d'Hygiene Publique; in Britain he became a Deputy Senior Medical Officer, Ministry of Health, 1935; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1937; Senior Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health, 1940; retired, 1941, but rejoined as a temporary Medical Officer; chaired the preliminary committee in London, which resulted in the new International Sanitary Conventions of 1944 reflecting the hygiene implications of air travel; During the Second World War Stock was made responsible for the health of people in air-raid shelters in London, helping, for example, to eradicate a species of mosquito (culex molestus), in London Underground wastewater; chaired wartime Committee on Louse Infestation; retired from the Ministry of Health at the end of the war; awarded the Medaille de la Reconnaissance Francaise by the French Government for his services to the Free French forces; became a part-time consultant to the World Health Organisation (WHO), serving as chairman of the Quarantine Commission of their Interim Commission; accompanied the Director General of WHO on an extensive tour of tropical Africa; finally retired to Ramsbury, Wiltshire, although he continued to act as a consultant to WHO; chaired its Committee on Quarantine and occasionally undertook missions to West Africa; in Ramsbury he played a prominent role in the affairs of the village, and was affectionately known to the inhabitants as "Colonel Stock"; died 95 days before his 100th birthday, on 27 December 1975.