1800-1890
Reformer

Crusader. Edwin Chadwick's contemporaries called him boring, unreasonable, and overbearing, but he was, in fact, an effective crusader for social change. He devoted his considerable talents to solving publichealth problems engendered by the Industrial Revolution, and he had the satisfaction of seeing steps taken to address most of the wrongs he sought to correct.

Early Years. Chadwick was born on 24 January 1800 at Longsight, near the city of Manchester. When he was ten, he and his family moved to London, where he was initially trained in the legal profession. He became acquainted with the great utilitarian philosophers of his time, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), and for a time served as Bentham's personal secretary. Medical reformer Neil Arnott, Chadwick's personal physician, introduced him to the social implications of public hygiene. In 1834, Chadwick was appointed to the Poor...