Sir George Godber died on the 7th February 2009 aged 100.  He was one of the key architects of the NHS which came into being in 1948.  He was Assistant Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health from 1950 to 1960, and Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health from 1960 to 1973.  He was responsible for many of the key health policies over the years in the UK .

‘He married Norma Rainey, a nurse he met when they both worked at the London Hospital ; she died in 1999. They had seven children: one was stillborn in 1944, and a year later a son and daughter died from Fanconi Anaemia. Another son died of it aged 25, shortly before stem cell transplants became widespread. He is survived by a daughter, who was a children’s nurse, and two sons, of whom one is a recently retired psychogeriatrician and the other was a civil servant in the Department of Health.’

Perhaps, among his thoughts when he was involved in putting together and maintaining the NHS were his own family’s suffering and experiences with FA.  It is also somewhat inspiring that he went on to achieve so much, in particular on behalf of others, considering the emotional burden he and his wife would have had to carry throughout their lives

You can find more about him on the following links:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/aug041/a1151

http://www.nhshistory.net/cvgodber.html<http://www.nhshistory.net/cvgodber.html>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/feb/11/sir-george-godber-obituary

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4583311/Sir-George-Godber.html

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60468-2/fulltext

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/News/Recentstories/DH094326

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article5711423.ece

http://www.rcgp.org.uk/services/historyheritagearchives/heritage/obituaries.aspx?theme= textonly

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 7:04 pm