Sir George Godber KCB. 1908 -

Sir George Godber pursued a distinguished career in health planning and education, and was closely involved in the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS). After training at the London Hospital and the London School of Hygiene, he became a Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health (MoH) in 1939. As he felt certain that there would be a National Health Service, he entered public health medicine in order to get into the MoH which, he presumed, would have the task of organising the NHS. ). In the early 1940s Godber was part of one of the teams that undertook a national survey of hospitals, his team covering the Sheffield and Midlands area. This work brought him to the heart of the re-organisation of the hospital side of the future health service.  In 1950 he became Deputy Chief Medical Officer, MoH, and from 1960 to 1973 he was Chief Medical Officer at the MoH's successor departments, the Department of Health and Social Security, the Department of Education and Science, and the Home Office.  Because of office politics, his appointment was by no means certain.

George was always on the look out for young people with talent.  He would identify people with good ideas and ensure that they were placed on committees normally inhabited by very senior people.  You do not get tomorrow's policies, he said, be speaking to yesterday's people. He held evening meetings with the newest recruited doctors in his division to help them to see the broader picture. He was a quick and often accurate judge of people, had a personal 'promotion' list, but could take quick decisions if people did not deliver.  He served many Ministers and on one occasion greeted a new arrival by saying something along the lines of "you are the 10th Minister it has been my honour to serve".  He was an early believer in the need to involve doctors in management (the Cogwheel Report), and strove for many years to improve medical manpower planning.

Without his work the NHS would be very different. Godber put the deficiencies of prewar health care right, ensuring that specialists were evenly distributed, that general practitioners worked in good premises and that all doctors kept up to date through postgraduate education. His other important initiatives included putting the contraceptive pill on prescription and public health campaigns, particularly against tobacco smoking (he was instrumental in the initiation of work at the Royal College of Physicians.)

Geoffrey Rivett had the privilege of being appointed by George to a post in the Department in 1972 and of working for him as secretary to one of his committees (on general practice).  It was a great experience.  George Godber in later years assisted in the correction of the first three chapters of his book, From Cradle to Grave, and kept in regular touch.

Modesty is George Godber's main feature: he refuses to be called "the best chief medical officer the country ever had" or "one of the architect's of the National Health Service" Yet to many he is the gold standard by which CMOs are judged.   He was appointed Knight Commander Order of the Bath in 1962, and Knight Grand Cross of the Bath in 1971. He married Norma Hathorne Rainey in 1935.  There were tragedies in his private life and he paid great tribute to the way in which his wife kept things going through times when his civil service work was near overwhelming.

A fine review of the period before, and the first 40 years of, the NHS by Sir George Godber appears in the BMJ for 1988  - a very large pdf file.