Leonard Colebrook

{{Short description|English physician and bacteriologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Use British English|date=July 2012}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Leonard Colebrook | image = Leonard Colebrook.jpg | image_size = | caption = Leonard Colebrook in 1945 By Walter Stoneman | birth_date = {{Birth date|1883|3|2|df=y}} | birth_place = Guildford, Surrey, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1967|9|27|1883|3|2|df=y}} | death_place = Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire, England | residence = | citizenship = | ethnicity = | field = Medicine | work_institutions = | alma_mater = Royal London Hospital St Mary's Hospital, London | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = Prontosil<ref name="NewSci2017" /> | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | prizes = Fellow of the Royal Society (1945)<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Oakley | first1 = C. L. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1971.0004 | doi-access = free| title = Leonard Colebrook 1883-1967 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 17 | pages = 90–138 | year = 1971 | pmid = 11615432}}</ref> FRCS FRCOG Blair Bell medal<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1111/j.1471-0528.1955.tb14819.x | title = Presentation of the Blair Bell Medal to DR. Leonard Colebrook by Sir William Gilliatt, K.C.V.O., President of the Royal Society of Medicine | journal = BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology | volume = 62 | issue = 5 | pages = 680–682 | year = 1955 | pmid = 13263984 | author1 = GILLIATT W | s2cid = 43715405 }}</ref>(1955) Edward Jenner Medal (1962) | religion = | footnotes = | signature = }} '''Leonard Colebrook''' FRS<ref name="frs"/> ({{Birth date|1883|3|2|df=y}} – {{Death date|1967|9|27|df=y}}) was an English physician and bacteriologist.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Dunn | first1 = P. M. | title = Dr Leonard Colebrook, FRS (1883-1967) and the chemotherapeutic conquest of puerperal infection | doi = 10.1136/adc.2006.104448 | journal = Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition | volume = 93 | issue = 3 | pages = F246–F248 | year = 2008 | pmid = 18426926| s2cid = 19923455 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Parker | first1 = M. T. | title = Leonard Colebrook and his family | doi = 10.1016/0195-6701(94)90135-X | journal = Journal of Hospital Infection | volume = 28 | issue = 2 | pages = 81–90 | year = 1994 | pmid = 7844352}}</ref><ref name="BMJ1983">{{Cite journal | last1 = Lowbury | first1 = E. J. | title = Leonard Colebrook (1883-1967) | doi = 10.1136/bmj.287.6409.1981 | journal = British Medical Journal | volume = 287 | issue = 6409 | pages = 1981–1983 | year = 1983 | pmid = 6418291| pmc =1550201 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Colebrook | first1 = V. | title = Leonard colebrook | doi = 10.1016/S0020-1383(71)80035-9 | journal = Injury | volume = 2 | issue = 3 | pages = 182–184 | year = 1971 | pmid = 4940789}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | title = Leonard Colebrook. F.R.S., D.Sc., F.R.C.S., F.R.C.O.G | journal = The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Commonwealth | volume = 75 | issue = 1 | pages = 105–106 | year = 1968 | pmid = 4865058 }}</ref>

==Education== Colebrook was educated at the Grammar School in Guildford (1891–96), Westbourne High School in Bournemouth (1896–99) and Christ's College Blackheath in Kent (1899 - 1900). Colebrook started his medical training at the London Hospital Medical College after which he won a scholarship to St Mary's Hospital, London, graduating in 1906 with M.B. and B.S. (Lond). degrees.<ref name="frs"/>

==Career== He stayed at St Mary's Hospital Medical School from 1907 - 14. he was initially appointed as an assistant to Sir Almroth Wright in the inoculation Department. He worked on vaccine therapy, tuberculosis and pneumonia.<ref name="frs" />

At the outbreak of the First World War he was appointed as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps and the Battalion Medical Officer of the Kensington Regiment. He stayed initially at St Mary's Hospital but in 1917 was transferred to France where he worked on wound infections with Sir Almroth Wright at No. 13 General Hospital, Boulogne.<ref name="frs" />

In 1919 he became an assistant again in the Bacteriology Department of the National Institute of Medical Research in Hampstead. However, in 1922 he transferred to St Mary's Hospital and worked with Sir Almroth Wright again for a further seven years.<ref name="frs" /> He became an expert on bacterial chemotherapy, working with arsenic-containing compounds. These were effective in the laboratory against the bacteria that caused disease such as puerperal sepsis, but turned out to be too toxic to be effective in people, despite substantial efforts to find a suitable treatment protocol.<ref name="frs" />

In 1929 Colebrook was appointed Director of the Research Laboratory at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London. His research interest was puerperal sepsis, a bacterial infection following childbirth that killed around 2000 women in England and Wales at that time.<ref name="NewSci2017">{{cite journal|last1=Wong|first1=Sam|title=Sibling saviours of the maternity ward|journal=New Scientist|date=4 February 2017|volume=233|issue=3111|pages=40–41|doi=10.1016/S0262-4079(17)30228-2|bibcode=2017NewSc.233...40W |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23331110-800-sibling-heroes-from-the-dawn-of-antibiotics/|access-date=7 February 2017|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In 1935 Colebrook showed Prontosil was effective against haemolytic streptococcus in childbirth<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Turk | first1 = J. L. | title = Leonard Colebrook: The chemotherapy and control of streptococcal infections | journal = Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine | volume = 87 | issue = 12 | pages = 727–728 | year = 1994 | pmid = 7853294 | pmc = 1294976 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=zbIuXxpoRXMC&dq=fireguards+act+1952&pg=PA54|title=Wound care nursing|author=Sue Bale, Vanessa Jones|page=54|access-date=2009-08-05 | isbn=978-0-7234-3344-6 | year=2006 | publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences}}</ref> and hence a cure for puerperal fever.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ellis | first1 = H. | title = Leonard Colebrook and the treatment of puerperal sepsis | journal = British Journal of Hospital Medicine | volume = 72 | issue = 2 | pages = 109 | year = 2011 | pmid = 21378618 | location=London, England | doi = 10.12968/hmed.2011.72.2.109 }}</ref> His use of Prontosil was the first clinical trial of any antibiotic, that demonstrated a reduction in death rates from 1 in 4 to 1 in 20.<ref name="NewSci2017" />

His sister Dora Colebrook was a bacteriologist, also working at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, London. She investigated the source of the streptococcal infections within the hospital. After collecting samples of the bacteria from patients, their families and hospital staff, she used immunology to identify individual strains. This showed that the strains causing puerperal sepsis were not special but were the same ones present in the community that caused sore throats. They were acquired by women after childbirth rather than before.<ref name="NewSci2017" /> Working together, the Colebrooks showed that streptococci were more likely to originate from hospital staff than from the patient.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tJZ6RD6qblIC&pg=PA134|title=Hospital Infection from Miasmas to MRSA|author=Graham Ayliffe and Mary English|pages=136–137|access-date=2009-08-05 | isbn=978-0-521-53178-8 | year=2003 | publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> He campaigned for the use of gloves, mask, and gown before touching patients and showed that chloroxylenol was both an effective disinfectant and superior to soap and water for hand cleansing.

In the Second World War he was appointed a Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps and Bacteriological Consultant to the British Expeditionary Force, working first in France and then England. Treatment of infections in burns was his focus and in 1942 he moved to Glasgow as Director of the Medical Research Council's Burns Unit in Glasgow's Royal Infirmary.<ref name="frs" /> His interest in why skin grafts were often unsuccessful led to contact<ref name="BMJ1983" /> with Peter Medawar who later discovered the biology underlying successful tissue grafts.

Following administrative difficulties with providing suitable treatment conditions, he moved the Burns Unit to Birmingham Accident Hospital in 1944 and continued as its Director until he retired in 1948.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elliottsimpson.com/history/glasgow1university.html|title=Glasgow University|access-date=2009-08-05}}</ref> There he established the practice of placing the burns patients in a near sterile environment.<ref name="AIM25" >{{cite web|url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=10952&inst_id=20&nv1=browse&nv2=repos|title=AIM25 Colebrook, Leonard (1883–1967) Identity Statement|access-date=2009-08-05|archive-date=6 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606130605/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=10952&inst_id=20&nv1=browse&nv2=repos|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Following his retirement, he and his wife Vera promoted the use of guards on all portable electric heaters to prevent clothes catching alight. Despite substantial opposition, their campaign led to legislation requiring these guards (Heating Appliances (Fireguards) Act, 1952) and increased interest in flame-proof clothing.<ref name="frs" /><ref name="AIM25" /><ref name="Hansard-debate-fireguards-1952">{{cite web|title=Heating Appliances (Fireguards) Bill|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1952/jul/15/heating-appliances-fireguards-bill|website=Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)|date=15 July 1952|access-date=11 February 2017}}</ref>

==Family== Colebrook was born in Guildford, Surrey to May Colebrook (1838-1896) and Mary née Gower (1845- ). His father was a farmer, nonconformist preacher and active to benefit the local community.<ref name="BMJ1983" />  He had two brothers and three sisters, among whom the youngest, Dora, became a bacteriologist, as well as seven half-siblings from his father's first marriage.<ref name="frs" />

In 1914 he married Dorothy Scarlett Campbell (1875-1941), a social worker, daughter of John Scarlett Campbell (1828-1897), a judge in the Indian service. After her death he married again, in 1946, Vera Locke (1903-1984), a freelance broadcaster and widow<ref name="BMJ1983" /> of Edward Robert Scovell (1881-1944). There were no children from either marriage. His main hobby was gardening.<ref name="frs" />

He died in 1967 at his home in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{cite web|title=Colebrook, Leonard (1883 - 1967)|url=http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E006228b.htm|website=RCS : Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online|publisher=Royal College of Surgeons of England|access-date=7 August 2015}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colebrook, Leonard}} Category:1883 births Category:1967 deaths Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Royal Army Medical Corps officers Category:Military personnel from Guildford Category:20th-century English medical doctors Category:People educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford Category:Physicians of St Mary's Hospital, London Category:Recipients of the Jenner Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine Category:British fellows of the Royal Society