Colonel Walter Gawen King CIE (4 December 1851[1] – 4 April 1935) was a British Indian army surgeon who served in the Madras Presidency as a sanitary officer and introduced a number of public health measures for the first time in India. The King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Chennai was named in his honour in 1905.

Life

King was born in England, the son of J. H. King and Laura daughter of George William Marrett, engineer to the Nizam in Hyderabad. He studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen, receiving an MB and CM in 1873 and joined the Indian Medical Service in 1874.[1][2] He served in the 31's and the 5th Burmah regiments and became a civil surgeon in 1877 at Madras. While posted here, he was a professor of hygiene at the Madras Medical College. During the famines of 1876-77 and 1896-97 in southern India, his services were recognized by the government. He served in Burma from 1906 to 1908.[3] He was made CIE in 1899. He retired to England in 1910 with the rank of colonel and lived in Hendon where he died in 1935.

The King Institute c. 1914

King's major work was on vaccination and public health. He was involved in the introduction of rules to track movement of people during the plague outbreaks in Madras. He began research at Guindy in 1899 to produce vaccines which resulted in an institute that was formally named as the King Institute and opened on 11 March 1905.[1][4]

Vaccination and public health

Vaccine production building at the King Institute c. 1914

King was appointed inspector of vaccination in 1890 and used lanolin and vaseline as a medium for storage of smallpox vaccine. In 1892 he became Sanitary Commissioner for Madras and served in this position until 1905. He established a department of public health and developed courses in public health and had sanitary inspectors trained at the Madras Medical College.

Plague management

In September 1896, the first case of plague in India was reported in Bombay. King immediately issued a circular to the medical officers of the port, warning them of its entrance to the Presidency and advised the local bodies in the Presidency to adopt plague passports, which would enable tracking movement of people from plague affected areas to other parts. In 1903 nearly 79500 plague passports were issued and tracked. He also produced management guidelines which included inspections of ships and transports.[5][6][7]

Promotion of soya

King recognised the nutritional value of soya beans and promoted their cultivation in India. In 1897 he provided seeds to officials in South India to introduce soya bean cultivation in India.[8]

Publications

King published numerous papers and also published annual reports on vaccination in the Madras Presidency for 1902-03, 1903-04.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "King, Col Walter Gawen, (4 Dec. 1851–4 April 1935)", Who Was Who, Oxford University Press, 2007-12-01, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u212369, ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1, retrieved 2022-11-25
  2. ↑ J., S. P. (1935). "Colonel W. G. King, C.I.E". Nature. 135 (3420): 817. doi:10.1038/135817a0. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 4065676.
  3. ↑ "The Medical Meeting in Burma". The Indian Medical Gazette. 45 (4): 1–20. 1910. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5140551. PMID 29004594.
  4. ↑ "India". The British Medical Journal. 1 (2771): 314–319. 1914. ISSN 0007-1447. JSTOR 25308801.
  5. ↑ King, W. G. (1910). "Plague and the Destruction of Rats". Journal of the Royal Institute of Public Health. 18 (12): 737–743. ISSN 0368-3982. JSTOR 45162818.
  6. ↑ King, W. G.; Taylor, H. D. (1906). "Plague in Madras". The Indian Medical Gazette. 41 (11): 459–465. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5180946. PMID 29006074.
  7. ↑ King, W. G. (1924-06-14). "The Hindu and Plague". British Medical Journal. 1 (3311): 1071. ISSN 0007-1447. PMC 2304515.
  8. ↑ Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko, eds. (2016). History of Soybean Crushing: Soy Oil and Soybean Meal (980-2016):: Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Soyinfo Center. ISBN 9781928914891.
  9. ↑ King, W. G. (1902). "The Introduction of Vaccination into India". The Indian Medical Gazette. 37 (10): 413–414. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5156148. PMID 29003634.
  10. ↑ King, W. G. (1905). "The Antiquity of Hindu Vaccination". The Indian Medical Gazette. 40 (6): 234. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5163083. PMID 29004863.
  11. ↑ King, W. G. (1913). ""Flaming" in Prevention of Plague and Kala-Azar". The Indian Medical Gazette. 48 (3): 124. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5177265. PMID 29005873.
  12. ↑ King, W. G. (1914). "Itinerating Dispensaries". The Indian Medical Gazette. 49 (9): 370. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5181399. PMID 29006337.
  13. ↑ King, W. G. (1930-12-27). "Cholera Epidemiology". British Medical Journal. 2 (3651): 1101–1102. ISSN 0007-1447. PMC 2452810.
  14. ↑ King, W. G. (1922). "The Outlook in Tropical Hygiene". British Medical Journal. 1 (3206): 935–936. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.3206.935-c. PMC 2416308.
  15. ↑ King, Colonel W. G. (1923). "Politics and Sanitation". Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1919-1933). 18 (69): 113–125. ISSN 2059-4941. JSTOR 43431175.
  16. ↑ King, W. G. (1924). "The Penalties of Research". Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1919-1933). 18 (72): 628–634. ISSN 2059-4941. JSTOR 43430693.
  17. ↑ King, W. G. (1910). "Operation Rooms in the Tropics". The Indian Medical Gazette. 45 (6): 201–207. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5140633. PMID 29004655.
  18. ↑ King, W. G. (1924-04-12). "Rice in Relation to Beri-Beri". British Medical Journal. 1 (3302): 688–689. ISSN 0007-1447. PMC 2304203.
  19. ↑ King, W. G. (1925-01-31). "Assets of the I.m.s". British Medical Journal. 1 (3344): 241. ISSN 0007-1447. PMC 2196813.
  20. ↑ King, W. G. (1912). "Air Movement in Association Wards". The Indian Medical Gazette. 47 (2): 60–64. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5168047. PMID 29005307.
  21. ↑ King, W. G. (1901). "Beri-Beri in the Northern Circars". The Indian Medical Gazette. 36 (1): 36–39. ISSN 0019-5863. PMC 5164185. PMID 29004202.
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