Rubert William Boyce

Sir Rubert William Boyce FRS (22 April 1863 – 16 June 1911) was an English pathologist and hygienist, known for his work on tropical medicine.

Early life Born on 22 April 1863 at Osborne Terrace, Clapham Road, London, he was second son of Robert Henry Boyce, originally of Carlow, Ireland, an engineer and surveyor of British buildings in China, and his wife Louisa, daughter of Dr. Neligan, a medical practitioner in Athlone. After attending a preparatory school in Rugby, Warwickshire, and then a school in Paris, he began as a medical student at University College London. He graduated M.B. of London University in 1889.

Academic organiser In 1892 Boyce was appointed assistant professor of pathology at University College, London. In 1894 he was appointed to the newly endowed chair of pathology of University College, Liverpool, then a constituent of Victoria University, Manchester. At Liverpool he organised a laboratory of scientific pathology: in 1898 it was installed in a new building, and at the same time he was appointed bacteriologist to the Liverpool corporation. and in 1906 he was knighted. He became a member of the African advisory board of the Colonial Office, and served on royal commissions on sewage disposal and on tuberculosis. In September 1906 he suffered a stroke of paralysis. After a year he partially resumed his university work, although he was permanently disabled.

In 1909 Boyce visited the West Indies to report for the government on yellow fever, and in 1910 he went to West Africa on a similar mission. The last of his projects was the formation at Liverpool of a bureau of yellow fever. The first number of its bulletin was sent to press just before his death. He died of an apoplectic seizure on 16 June 1911, at Park Lodge, Croxteth Road, Liverpool, and was buried at Bebington cemetery, Wirral, Cheshire.

Works In 1892 Boyce published A Text-book of Morbid Histology. From this time he wrote papers on pathology and tropical sanitation for the Royal Pathological Society, and other scientific bodies. He was joint author with John Hill Abram of Handbook of Pathological Anatomy (1895). Later he wrote more popular accounts, which were influential:

Mosquito or Man (1909; 3rd edit. 1910); Health Progress and Administration in the West Indies (1910; 2nd edit. 1910); and Yellow Fever and its Prevention (1911).

Family Boyce married in 1901 Kate Ethel (died 1902), daughter of William Johnston, a Liverpool shipowner, of Woodslee, Bromborough, Cheshire, and left one daughter.