Joseph Arkwright

Sir Joseph Arthur Arkwright MA MD MRCS FRCP FRS (22 March 1864 – 22 November 1944) was a medical doctor. He was forced to give up his work due to severe dermatitis. He became a bacteriologist and from 1906 joined the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, first as a voluntary worker, then as assistant bacteriologist from 1908. Early life and education He was born at Thurlaston, Leicestershire, England, the youngest of the five children of Arthur William Arkwright, a farmer, of Broughton Hall, Astley, Leicestershire and his wife and second cousin, Emma, daughter of John Wolley, of Beeston, Nottinghamshire. His mother died in 1866. His great-great-grandfather was Sir Richard Arkwright the inventor of textile manufacturing machinery. He was educated at Wellington College and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he took the natural sciences tripos in 1884–6 with zoology his major subject. He completed his medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital (Barts), London, qualifying in 1889. Career He held posts at Barts and later at the West London Hospital in Hammersmith and the Victoria Hospital for Children, in Fulham. Later he settled in general practice at Halesowen, then in Worcestershire, now part of the West Midlands. However, after he suffered severe dermatitis and was forced to give up general practice.