Richard Baron Howard 1807-1848

Howard was the son of a Yorkshire farmer. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and received his qualification in 1828-9. In 1829 he became a physician's clerk at RMI. He was later resident medical officer for the Manchester workhouse. In 1839 he became a physician at Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary. He had an interest in the medical condition of the working classes and in 1839 published Inquiry into the morbid effects of a deficiency of food with reference to an occurrence amongst the destitute poor. He also aided the Poor law Commissioners in their researches for the Sanitary inquiry in England. In 1842 he was elected honorary physician at RMI, and also lectured on physic at Manchester Royal School of Medicine. Howard died in 1848, and an elaborate monument to his memory was erected in the chapel of the Infirmary.

See also MMC/1/HowardRB.