Dr John Snow

The College takes its name from the nineteenth-century Yorkshire physician Dr John Snow, who is regarded by many as one of the greatest of all doctors - a world-leading pioneer in anaesthesia, epidemiology and public health, in addition to being Queen Victoria's obstetrician.

His most famous act of removing the handle from the pump at a contaminated water-source in order to stop the spread of cholera, is possibly myth. The less journalistic, but far more important, reality is that his insight into the way that cholera spread enabled the 1854 London cholera outbreak to be controlled and brought to an end.

Many aspects of Dr Snow's work were based on thoughtful experimentation, bringing together different sciences in a way which anticipates modern medical research. For instance his research on anaesthetics drew on work in physiology, physics and chemistry.

With the recent arrival of undergraduate medical education on the Queen's Campus here in Stockton, the choice of John Snow as the name for our new College is a fitting one.

Hospial Doctor magazine readers voted John Snow as " the greatest doctor of all time" in March 2003, with Hippocrates coming in second!

Those interested in the life and work of Dr Snow might like to visit the site on our related links.

It's not the original and Broad Street is now Soho's Broadwick Street - but there is a replica of the pump made so famous by John Snow and the John Snow pub nearby is somewhere to refresh yourself!