William Henry Power

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox medical person | honorific_prefix = | name = Sir William Henry Power | honorific_suffix = | image = Sir William Henry Power.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = 15 December 1842 | birth_place = | death_date = 28 July 1916 | death_place = | death_cause = | nationality =  | citizenship =  | education = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = | relations = | website = | profession = | field = | work_institutions = | specialism = | research_field = | notable_works = | prizes = | child = | module2 = | signature = }} '''Sir William Henry Power''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|sep=,|KCB|FRS}} (15 December 1842 – 28 July 1916) was a British medical doctor.<ref name=RCSE>{{cite web |title=Power, Sir William Henry (1842 - 1916) |url=https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal?d=ent%3A%2F%2FSD_ASSET%2F0%2FSD_ASSET%3A375171%7E%7E0&ic=true |website=livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk |publisher=Royal College of Surgeons of English |access-date=15 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240615052119/https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal?d=ent%3A%2F%2FSD_ASSET%2F0%2FSD_ASSET%3A375171%7E%7E0&ic=true |archive-date=15 June 2024}}</ref><ref name=BMJObit1916>{{cite journal |title=Sir William Henry Power, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.R.C.S. |journal=The British Medical Journal |date=1916 |volume=2 |issue=2901 |pages=203–207 |jstor=20304904 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20304904 |issn=0007-1447}}</ref><ref name="Sheard2016">{{cite book |last1=Sheard |first1=Sally |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/9781315385006/nation-doctor-liam-donaldson-sally-sheard |title=The Nation's Doctor: The Role of the Chief Medical Officer 1855-1998 |last2=Donaldson |first2=Liam |date=2016 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-315-38500-6 |doi=10.1201/9781315385006}}</ref>

==Biography== William Power was born on 15 December 1842 in London, the eldest son of the surgeon William Henry Power and his wife Charlotte Smart.<ref name=DNB.Power>{{cite ODNB |last1=Hardy |first1=Anne |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004 |isbn=0-19-861395-4 |pages=146–147 |chapter-url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-35595 |language=en |chapter=Power, Sir William Henry (1842–1916), epidemiologist and civil servant|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/35595}}</ref> He studied at University College, London, before taking up an apprenticeship with his father. <ref name=DNB.Power/> He qualified MRCS and LSA after studying medicine at St Bartholomew's.<ref name=DNB.Power/>

Power served as Assistant Medical Officer and Medical Inspector for General Sanitary Purposes of the Local Government Board.<ref name=DNB.Power/> The entomologist and lecturer of medicine, John Arthur Power was an uncle.

In January 1900, Power was appointed Chief Medical Officer of England, and served as such until 1908.<ref name=DNB.Power/>

In 1898 Power was awarded the first Jenner Memorial Medal of the Epidemiological Society of London.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/medicalprofession/epidemiologicalsocietymedal.html| title = Photo of the Epidemiological Society Medal|publisher= Archives Hub|accessdate = 2012-10-22}}</ref> He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1895 and awarded their Buchanan Medal in 1907.<ref name = RS>{{cite web|url = http://royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=15&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27%20%20power%27%29|title = Library and Archive|publisher= Royal Society|accessdate = 2012-10-22}}</ref> He won the Bisset Hawkins Medal from the Royal College of Physicians in 1902.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Royal College of Physicians of London |date=2 August 1902 |page=11 |issue=36836}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Full text of "A list of the fellows, members, extra-licentiates and licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1859-[1986]" | website=Internet Archive | url=https://archive.org/stream/b24990796_0072/b24990796_0072_djvu.txt | access-date=2021-06-24}} </ref>

Power was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the November 1902 Birthday Honours list,<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Birthday Honours |date=10 November 1902 |page=10 |issue=36921}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27499 |date=28 November 1902 |page=8253 }}</ref> and knighted as a Knight Commander (KCB) of the same order in 1908.<ref name= RS/>

==Death== Power died at Holly Lodge, East Molesey, Surrey, in 1916.<ref name="deaths">{{cite news |title= Deaths |work=The Times |date= 31 July 1916 |page= 1}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Power, William Henry}} Category:1842 births Category:1916 deaths Category:Medical doctors from London Category:Chief Medical Officers for England Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:British epidemiologists Category:Recipients of the Jenner Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine