Sir WILLIAM HENEY POWER (1842-1916). 



Sir William Heney Power, K.O.B., Principal Medical Officer of the Local 

 Government Board from 1900 to 1908, died on July 28, 1916, at his residence 

 at East Molesey after a lingering illness. He was in his T-lth year, having 

 been born in London, December 15, 1842. His father, Dr. William Henry 

 Power, who died in 1877, apart from his strictly professional work, had earned 

 a remarkable reputation as a successful medical coach in the various subjects 

 for the diplomas of the Eoyal College of Surgeons and of the Apothecaries 

 Company. It is of interest to note that the following of medicine as a career 

 was hereditary in the family to a somewhat unusual degree, Sir William 

 Power being the fifth representative of the profession in direct succession from 

 father to son, the first of the medical line having been John Power (born in 

 1730), who practised as a surgeon at Polesworth in Warwickshire. 



As bearing on Sir William Power's devotion to exact methods of research 

 it may be noted also that evidence of hereditary devotion to mathematical 

 studies is afforded by the fact that his uncle, John Arthur Power, and at least 

 four other relatives on the paternal side graduated at Cambridge as Wranglers 

 and became Fellows of their respective Colleges ; one of them, John Power 

 (1818-1880), who was 8th Wrangler in 1841, eventually becoming Master of 

 Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Vice-Chancellor of the University. 



Power received his early education at University College School, subse- 

 quently commencing his medical career in the manner then usual by being 

 apprenticed to his father, and entering as a medical student at St. Bartholomew's 

 Hospital. He obtained the qualifications of M.E.C.S. and L.S.A. in 1864, and 

 during tlie next six years held various hospital appointments, of which a 

 somewhat prolonged tenure of that of Eesident Medical Officer to the Victoria 

 Park Hospital for Diseases of the Chest afforded him the opportunity for 

 obtaining anintimate practical knowledge of the various clinical and pathological 

 phases of tuberculosis, of which he availed himself to the utmost. He always 

 retained special interest in the study of this disease, more especially in 

 relationship to public health work, and the results of this early training, 

 coupled with his intuitive appreciation of the various problems requiring 

 solution and of the methods of scientific investigation best suited for their 

 elucidation, proved most valuable, more especially during his term of service 

 on the Eoyal Commission on Tuberculosis. 



In 1871 Power commenced his long official career in Public Health on 

 appointment as Temporary Medical Inspector to the Local Government 

 Board, to which tlie Medical Staff of the Privy Council had been transferred 

 on the formation, in that year, of the new Department. Of his colleagues at 

 this period no less than four, John Simon, Seaton, Buchanan, and Thome, as 

 in the case of Power himself, subsequently became in turn Principal Medical 

 Officer to the Local Government Board. Of this pioneer staff", which also 



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