Andrew Semple obituary

Pioneering doctor and medical health officer in Liverpool who battled against infectious disease, slum conditions and pollutionFrom 1948 until 1974, Andrew Semple's patient was the city of Liverpool. Semple, who has died aged 101, was one of Britain's great 20th-century city medical officers of health. Under his guidance Liverpool tackled some of the persistent problems of infectious diseases, slum housing and air pollution that were a result of its rapid and often unplanned 19th-century growth. His ability to see the city as a living being, in which the health of residents was implicitly bound up with the declining fortunes of the economy, was one of his strengths.Semple was born in Glasgow and educated at the city's Allan Glen's school, notable for producing an unusually large number of politicians, scientists, actors and entrepreneurs. He graduated in medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1934 and specialised in public health, serving as an assistant MOH (medical officer of health) in Paisley, Portsmouth and Blackburn.During the second world war he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, electing for active service in the Second Submarine Flotilla, where he gained the rank of surgeon commander. Following an accident in the Tay estuary in which two British submarines attacked each other at night because they failed to recognise each other's signals, Semple made an important contribution to naval safety. He recognised that submariners who went from the brightly lit...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: theguardian.com Tuberculosis Obituaries Infectious diseases Health Society Housing Local government Second world war NHS World Health Organisation Liverpool Pollution Royal Navy Source Type: news