Edward Petronell Manby

Edward Petronell Manby (1864-1929) was highly regarded medical officer at the Ministry of Health with an unparalleled knowledge of Poor Law medicine.

Along with two of his elder brothers, he attended Epsom College,[1] founded in 1853 to provide a "liberal education" to 100 sons of "duly qualified medical men" for £25 each year.

[2] His elder brother, Alan Reeve Manby, was Surgeon-Apothecary In Ordinary to the Prince of Wales at Sandringham and later Physician Extraordinary.

[4] In the early 1890s he was working as a doctor in Liverpool, living at 1 Upper Parliament Street and by 1897 he was the Assistant Port Sanitary Medical Officer,[5] the first of several local and central government advisory appointments.

[1] His final appointment was as a medical officer at the Ministry of Health,[4] where he became an expert in metropolitan hospitals catering for the poor.