Edwin Chadwick

Sir Edwin Chadwick ( born January 24, 1800 in Longsight Manchester; † 6 July 1890) was a British civil servant who influenced the discussion on public health care in the 19th century significantly.

Chadwick worked as a journalist. In 1832 he was Assistant Commissioner and in 1833 Chief Commissioner of the Poor Law Commission. He was a follower of the economist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham and convinced of its motto as possible great happiness for many people. Chadwick worked among other things on the Factory Act (adopted 1833) and the Poor Law Amendment Act (adopted 1840). He came here to the personal belief that disease be a direct result of the condition under which the poor strata of Great Britain lived. His findings he summarized in the published in July 1842 work report from the Poor Law Commissioners on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain. It represents a milestone in the history of public health and had a large effect on the establishment of the city of hygiene in the Victorian era. He not only called for a comprehensive medical care and a central health authority. Among his urban health demands included - given the high mortality and the repeated cholera outbreaks - including the improvement of water supply, linking them with sewage and agricultural wastewater recycling on sewage farms, and improved waste management.

Chadwick was able to prevail only partially with his views, though he was supported by some of the engineers, especially his friend William Lindley. 1854, the British health authority was dissolved again and he sent into retirement. In 1889 he was knighted for his services.