As we mark World Health Day on Tuesday 7th April and the work of the World Health Organization, we look to Sheffield’s own Sir Arthur Hall – a pioneering physician whose legacy reflects a lifelong commitment to improving health and medical education.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations’ specialist agency for promoting global health. Founded on 7th April 1948, it monitors global health threats, coordinates international responses to emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and establishes international standards for healthcare. It collects and analyses global health data, enabling governments to identify risks and to plan interventions, and also raises awareness about major health issues, including mental illness, while promoting healthy living through global campaigns. It operates through six regional offices and works in more than 150 locations worldwide.
The life of Sir Arthur Hall, whose monument can be seen close to that of Mark Firth near the junction of Sandford Walk and the main carriageway, only briefly overlapped with the WHO as he died in 1951, three years after its formation, but his work reflects a similar striving for improvements in health and medical education, underpinned by a commitment to public service. Born in Sheffield, he studied natural sciences at Caius College, Cambridge before training at St Barthomew’s Hospital, London. Returning to Sheffield, he established and developed Sheffield’s modern medical school, supporting its union with Firth College and the Technical School, which led to the creation of the University of Sheffield in 1905. He taught physiology and pathology, served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1911 to 1916, and as Professor of Medicine from 1915 until his retirement in 1931. From 1890 to 1931, he also worked at the Royal Hospital, and despite all these heavy commitments, he still found time for research. In 1924 he published a work on encephalitis lethargica (sleeping sickness) which brought him international recognition. Knighted in 1935, he is perhaps the most eminent member of his profession in Sheffield, and the Sir Arthur Hall lecture is still given every three years in his honour.
You can read more about Sir Arthur Hall in the Trust’s publication Post Mortem – Healthcare in Victorian Sheffield which is available to purchase here.
Image credit: Picture Sheffield (h01073)