Alexander Houston
Sir Alexander Cruikshank Houston KBE CVO FRS FRSE LLD (1865-1933) was an expert on water supply and public health, of Scottish ancestry, who rose to be Director of Water Examination for London's Metropolitan Water Board.[1]
Life
He was born on 18 September 1865 in Mysore in India the eldest son of Surgeon General John Houston of the Indian Medical Service (IMS), and his wife, Isabella Mitchell. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School and then studied Medicine at Edinburgh University, graduating MB in 1889. However he then took a general Science degree, graduating BSc in 1891 and gaining a doctorate (DSc) in 1892.[2] In 1893 he began studies on lead poisoning within water supplies for the Local Government Board.
In 1897 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Andrew Douglas Maclagan, Alexander Crum Brown, Charles Hunter Stewart and Sir Arthur Mitchell.[3]
From 1898 he began working for London County Council and in 1899 was employed as a Bacteriologist with the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal. From 1905 he became Director of Water Examinations (establishing water purity) for London and the Metropolitan area. He also looked at the effects of water supply on certain plants and upon milk production. He was also sent to Lincoln during a typhoid epidemic to establish the link to water supply.[4]
In 1907 he worked on establishing a new and safe water supply for Cairo in Egypt and in the same year worked on the Belfast Health Inquiry. In 1913 he visited Ottawa in Canada with Sir Alexander Binnie to report on that city's water supply.[5]
He was created a Knight of the British Empire (KBE) in 1918 and later in the same year was made a Commander of the Victorian Order (CVO). In 1931 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He received an honorary doctorate (LLD) from Edinburgh University shortly before he died.
He died at home in Hampstead on 29 October 1933.
Publications
- Studies in Water Supplies (1914)
- Rivers as Sources of Water Supply (1917)
- Rural Water Supplies and their Purification (1918)
Family
In 1899 he married Ethel Hartley.
Artistic Recognition
His portrait photograph, by Walter Stoneman, is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.[6]
References
- ↑ http://rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royobits/1/3/334
- ↑ http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Alexander_Cruikshank_Houston
- ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
- ↑ https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HoACAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA52&lpg=RA1-PA52&dq=theophilus+houlbrooke&source=bl&ots=Ucww8_m1iC&sig=oJnl_msoeaeUBnED81u-EUrgxvQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjU8Mm_36DQAhXLAMAKHXTjCPI4ChDoAQgZMAE#v=onepage&q=theophilus%20houlbrooke&f=false
- ↑ http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Alexander_Cruikshank_Houston
- ↑ http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp78798/sir-alexander-cruikshank-houston