William Robert Cornish

William Robert Cornish (also W. R. Cornish, 1828 – 19 December 1896) was a British physician who served in India for more than thirty years, and became the Surgeon-General—head of medical services—in the Madras Presidency. During the Great Famine of 1876–78, Cornish, then Sanitary Commissioner of Madras, argued for generous famine relief, which put him at odds with Sir Richard Temple, Famine Envoy for the Government of India, who was promoting reduced rations. Some of Cornish's innovations made their way into the Indian Famine Codes of the late 19th century.

Education Cornish was born in Butleigh, near Glastonbury in 1828. There, his attention was drawn to the high mortality rate among the prisoners, very few of whom apparently survived beyond seven years. In it, he argued that European methods of wet drainage (using sewers and drains), were not optimal for tropical climates, where waste decomposed faster and where, in the summer months, there was water shortage; In his new position, he traveled throughout the presidency promoting dry conservancy, clean drinking water, and vaccination against small-pox. Relying on his experience from investigating prison conditions two decades earlier, Cornish advocated more generous rations than Temple, whose reduced rations were being handed out in the early months of 1877. Many of his recommendations would find their way into the Provisional Famine Code of 1883 and other Indian Famine Codes thereafter. ("State Medicine" is a late-Victorian term encompassing not only "public health," but also government health policy, immunization programs, welfare programs, and payment schemes for physicians, a precursor, according to some, of "socialized medicine.")

W. R. Cornish died in Worthing on 19 December 1896.