Sir edwin chadwick biography of martin

To mark the th anniversary of the Public Health Act, Iqbal Sram and John Ashton write a memo to Edwin Chadwick, the architect of the act, on the state of the public health at the end of the millennium

I will not cease from mental strife, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand Till we have built Jerusalem In England’s green and pleasant land William Blake

Dear Sir Edwin,

We live in a world which you would have envied. You played a dominant role in laying the foundations of this world. A clean and secure water supply for the population at large, coupled with the separate disposal of their sewage and waste, were the central planks of your crusade to protect public health in your day. However, Sir Edwin, we enter a caution here. The harmonious world referred to is, in essence, the “first world.” The insanitary conditions which you were determined to eradicate still persist over large parts of the globe.

It will not have escaped your notice that it is years since the enactment of the Public Health Act (An Act for promoting the Public Health), for you were its chief architect. You subscribed to the contemporary laissez faire doctrines in the management of economic affairs, having worked closely with the economist Nassau Senior in the reform of the poor laws, which dated back to Elizabethan times. In the social policy arena you battled hard and successfully against those who wished to extend and entrench that approach to a wide range of public policy areas. Your energy and determination secured support for state intervention for public health protection from the major perceived health hazards of the day, in particular the acute infectious diseases. You attributed these to insanitary conditions due to poor and sometimes non-existent drainage and disposal of urban waste and sewage.

It is said that in this context you were mainly concerned with the plight of the ablebodied urban poor. Because you were convinced tha

British social reformer (–)

Sir Edwin ChadwickKCB (24 January &#;&#; 6 July ) was an English social reformer who is noted for his leadership in reforming the Poor Laws in England and instituting major reforms in urban sanitation and public health. A disciple of Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, he was most active between and ; after that he held minor positions, and his views were largely ignored. Chadwick pioneered the use of scientific surveys to identify all phases of a complex social problem, and pioneered the use of systematic long-term inspection programmes to make sure the reforms operated as planned.

Early life

Edwin Chadwick was born on 24 January at Longsight, Manchester, Lancashire His mother, Teresa, died when he was still a young child, yet to be named. His father, James Chadwick, tutored the scientist John Dalton in music and botany and was considered to be an advanced liberal politician, thus exposing young Edwin to political and social ideas. His grandfather, Andrew Chadwick, had been a close friend of the Methodist theologian John Wesley.

He began his education at a small local school and then at a boarding school in Stockport, where he studied until he was When his family moved to London in , Chadwick continued his education with the help of private tutors, his father and a great deal of self-teaching.

His father remarried in the early s; Edwin's younger half-brother was baseball icon Henry Chadwick, born in

At 18, Chadwick decided to pursue a career in law and undertook an apprenticeship with a solicitor. In , he enrolled in law school at The Temple in London. On 26 November he was called to the bar, becoming a barrister.

Called to the bar without independent means, he sought to support himself by literary work such as his work on 'Applied Science and its Place in Democracy', and his essays in the Westminster Review, ma

Edwin Chadwick, the son of a journalist, John Chadwick, was born in Manchester on 24th January, His mother died when he was a child. Chadwick's father had progressive political views and encouraged his son to read books by radicals such as Tom Paine and Joseph Priestley. (1)

While studying in London to become a lawyer, Chadwick joined the Unilitarian Society where he met Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Francis Place, Thomas Southwood Smith and Neil Arnott.

In Chadwick became Bentham's private secretary and held this post until the philosopher's death in June Earl Charles Grey, the Prime Minister, set up a Poor Law Commission to examine the working of the poor Law system in Britain. Chadwick was appointed as one of the assistant commissioners responsible for collecting information on the subject. He soon emerged as one of the most important members of the investigation and he was eventually responsible for writing nearly a third of the published report. However, he had problems with his colleagues for being "impatient, judgemental and infamously rude". (2)

Edwin Chadwick & the Poor Law

In Chadwick was seconded to another inquiry, the royal commission on factories. "In a matter of a few months (April to July ) he drew up the terms of inquiry, directed the taking of evidence (in camera, to the disgust of the ten-hours lobby), and drew up a report which ingeniously recommended an eight-hour day for children under thirteen, complemented by three hours' education, appealing to humanitarian concerns for the young while avoiding the restrictions on adult labour that so horrified employers." As a result of the inquiry Parliament passed the Factory Act. (3)

The Poor Law report published in , the Commission made several recommendations to Parliament. As a result of the report, the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed. The act stated that: (a) no able-bodied person was to receive money or other