James W. B. Douglas

James William Bruce Douglas (1914 – 1992) was a British social researcher. Douglas was responsible for the National Survey of Health & Development that in turn led to other national birth cohort studies, such as the National Child Development Study, the 1970 British Cohort Study and the Millennium Cohort Study.

Life Douglas was born in Alperton, in 1914 and was the son of a clergyman. Upon receiving a Demy, Douglas attended Magdalen College, Oxford, to study Natural sciences and Physiology and was eventually awarded a First class honours degree. and conscientious objector, Douglas like most people at the time, was particularly concerned with inequality, health in society and at home, and family circumstances. To create the cohort, Douglas selected 5361 children representative of all social classes from the offspring of the 13,687 mothers who had participated in the original survey. Over the years the scope of the survey has expanded to include a wide range of social, physical and health measures. The study is still on-going and participants have been followed up through 24 data collections up to age 68 to 69, with future collections planned.