Administrative / Biographical History

LFPS Glas 1867; MD Brussels 1875; DPH Camb 1876; BA MB Dublin 1994, MA MD 1886; MRCP 1903, FRCP 1898; FRCP Ireland (hon) 1906.

Tatham was medical officer of health for Salford and for Manchester before being appointed medical statistician to the General Register Office. He was born on 24 March 1844 and gained his medical education in Sheffield. In 1870 he was appointed house surgeon to the Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary, and three years later became medical officer of health for Salford. He held this post until 1888 when he was elected medical officer of health for Manchester, and in 1890 was also lecturer on public health at Owens College. Tatham was a founder and first president of the Manchester Microscopical Society. He was appointed superintendent of statistics at the General Register Office in 1893, and retired in 1909. He was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1906. Tatham was president of the Epidemiological Society from 1906 to 1908. As government statistician he was also on a number of boards and committees, and was chairman of the Statistical Sub-Committee of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund from its inception in 1903 until his death. Tatham published important reports on the health of Salford and Manchester, including the important Manchester Life Table in 1892. He died on 8 November 1924.

Related Material

See also MMC/1/Tatham.