All News

Journal of Public Health - 'Lessons from the past: celebrating the 75th anniversary of Poverty and Public Health' by Professor Clare Bambra

(15 December 2011)

This editorial by Wolfson Fellow, Professor Clare Bambra  pays tribute to M'Gonigle as a public health pioneer. It outlines his life, summarizes his classic work and highlights lessons that are relevant to public health policy and practice.

2011 marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of George Cuthbert Mura M'Gonigle and John Kirkby's groundbreaking study Poverty and Public Health (1936).  It was one of the first major texts to reflect the emerging ideas of social medicine and a forerunner of post-war investigations into health and social conditions such as the Black Report.  However, unlike similar publications, such as Rowntree's study of York, Poverty and Public Health is now largely forgotten, except by historians. This editorial by Wolfson Fellow, Professor Clare Bambra attempts to correct this neglect by paying tribute to M'Gonigle as a public health pioneer. It outlines his life and summarizes his classic work. It concludes by highlighting lessons that are relevant to public health policy and practice today.

(Dec 2011)