Sir Herbert Read, G.C.M.G., C.B

Abstract

BY the death of Sir Herbert James Read on October 16, tropical medicine has lost of its best friends and supporters, and his name is interwoven with the history of that branch of medicine. Born in 1863 and educated at Allhallows School, Honiton, he entered the Colonial Office as a higher division clerk ; but soon, by his assiduity, tact and industry, he rose, step by step, until he became assistant private secretary to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, then Colonial Secretary, at the height of his career (1896). At this time Chamberlain had been gravely concerned about health conditions in West Africa. It was through Read's instrumentality that the name of Patrick Manson was brought to Chamberlain's notice, and this historic association between these two pioneers began. "His attention," so wrote the Colonial Secretary, "was definitely directed towards the importance of scientific enquiry into the causes of malaria and of special education in tropical medicine for the medical officers of the Crown Colonies."