Henry Littlejohn

Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn MD LLD FRCSE (8 May 1826 – 30 September 1914) was a Scottish surgeon, forensic scientist and public health official. He served for 46 years as Edinburgh's first Medical Officer of Health, during which time he brought about significant improvements in the living conditions and the health of the city's inhabitants. He also served as a police surgeon and medical adviser in Scottish criminal cases.

Early life and education

Henry Littlejohn was born in Edinburgh on 8 May 1826 to Isabella Duncan and Thomas Littlejohn, a master baker of 33 Leith Street.

He studied at the Perth Academy before attending the Royal High School, Edinburgh (1838 to 1841). He went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1847. He became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in the same year.

Medical and teaching career

From 1847 to 1848, Littlejohn worked as a house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. After a short period of study in Paris, he returned to the Infirmary as an assistant pathologist. This was followed by a brief spell in general practice. He was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1854.

Medical Officer of Health

In 1862, Littlejohn was appointed Edinburgh's first Medical Officer of Health. This was at a time when many of the town's inhabitants were living in squalor, in filthy overcrowded tenements, often with no water supply and with little or no sanitation. Disease was rampant. There had been two recent cholera epidemics, while typhoid, diphtheria and smallpox were endemic.

With the backing of Littlejohn's report, the Lord Provost, William Chambers, and the Town Council launched an ambitious programme of urban renewal in Edinburgh. This resulted in the demolition of the worst slums and created the largely Victorian Old Town that exists today. On Littlejohn's recommendation, the council also brought in regulations governing water supply, sewage, building standards, food hygiene, waste disposal and the management of cemeteries.

During Littlejohn's 46 years as Medical Officer of Health, the death rate in Edinburgh fell from 26 per thousand to 17 per thousand. There was a dramatic drop in outbreaks of smallpox and typhus. and a case of culpable homicide resulting from a railway accident which claimed twenty lives.

Appointments and honours

In 1855 Littlejohn was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and served as president in 1881. He was elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1875. From 1883 to 1885 he served as president of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society. He received an honorary LLD from the University of Edinburgh in 1893. In the same year, he became president of the Royal Institute of Public Health.

He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1895.

Later life and family

In his later life, Littlejohn lived at 24 Royal Circus in Edinburgh's Second New Town. He retired from public office on 10 March 1908, at the age of 82.

Littlejohn died at his country house, Benreoch, near Arrochar, Dunbartonshire, on 30 September 1914. A strong proponent of cremation, he was cremated at the Glasgow Crematorium. His ashes were interred at the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. His grave is on the edge of the southern path towards the west end. He is buried with his wife, and their son and daughter.