Henry Pitman

Sir Henry Alfred Pitman (1 July 1808, London – 6 November 1908, Enfield) was an English physician, known for his work on reforming medical education.

Biography After education at schools at Tooting and Ealing and with a tutor at Ware, Hertfordshire After travelling abroad for a year with a college friend, he spent six months working in the office of his brother-in-law, who was a solicitor.

He was responsible for administering the provisions of the new Medical Act affecting the College. In 1869 the first edition of the Nomenclature of Diseases was produced, and the new Diploma of Public Health owed its institution chiefly to his efforts. During his registrarship, the Bradshaw and Milroy Lectures were established and the Baly Medal and Murchison Scholarship came into being. It was Henry Pitman who was the chief instrument in bringing about the Conjoint Board examination; he received the honour of knighthood in 1883 in recognition of this achievement.

He married in 1852; the marriage produced three sons and four daughters. On his hundredth birthday he received a congratulatory telegram from King Edward VII.

A portrait by Ouless hangs in the reading-room of the Royal College of Physicians, to which it was presented on behalf of some of the fellows by Sir Risdon Bennett in 1886.