Hector Gavin

An early training in surgery does not at first sight appear to be ideal training for a subsequent career in Public Health. At least two Fellows have gone on to pursue distinguished careers in that specialty - Sir Henry Littlejohn(qv) and Hector Gavin. Born in Edinburgh, Hector Gavin spent his working life in England where he became a pioneer of the Sanitary Movement. A contemporary of Snow, he was responsible for bringing about radical improvements in Public Health in London, Newcastle and Dundee.

Hector Gavin was born and brought up in Edinburgh and apprenticed at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh at the age of 16. He proceeded LRCS in 1835 and FRCS three years later. Moving to England he spent the rest of his life as a pioneer of the burgeoning specialty of Public Health Medicine. The cholera epidemic of 1848-1849 brought Public Health to the fore and Gavin became editor of the Journal of Public Health. This was the era of new Public Health Acts in England and Gavin was an energetic proponent of such legislation. He made recommendation about improvements to Public Health in Newcastle, Dundee and London.

At the height of his career he was appointed one of three Sanitary Commissioners to the Army in the Crimea where their work in controlling infectious disease inspired Florence Nightingale to write to Lord Shaftesbury : “that Commission saved the British Army”. He died, tragically, as a result of a gun-shot accident in the Crimea in 1855.