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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 December 2009
THE APPOINTMENT OF A NEW M.O.H.
On May 17, 1888, the Town Council of Brighton met to select the town's first full-time Medical Officer of Health (abbreviated M.O.H.). The position had been advertised the previous month, and there was a large field, seventy-four medically qualified men in all. A committee of councillors and aldermen cut that number first to fifteen and then to six, all of whom were then serving elsewhere as Medical Officers of Health (also abbreviated M.O.H.). After interviewing these six, the committee placed two names before the Town Council: Henry Tomkins, M.D., M.O.H., for Leicester, and Arthur Newsholme, M.D., M.O.H., for the London vestry of Clapham. At age thirty-two Newsholme was slightly younger, and unlike Tomkins, he had served only part-time for a vestry not full-time for a borough. But Newsholme made a stronger initial impression, and his supporters on the Council contended that his was the more impressive set of academic credentials. The Council was not used to judging professional qualifications, and there was much joking in the meeting about brainpower and cleverness:
We ought to take their age a little into consideration. My candidate, Arthur Newsholme, is running Henry Tomkins very close. Well, but he is five years younger (several Voices: ‘No’). Yes, he is 31, and Henry Tomkins – (after whispering with several Councillors near him) – well, he is 32, and Henry Tomkins 36, four years difference. Well, if he is 32, where will he be when he be 36? (roars of laughter). I wish him to be in Brighton (applause). A man with all those degrees at 32 is a clever man and we want the cleverest.
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