Last Updated : 31 Aug 2009

Dr Duncan was Liverpool's, and the world's, first Medical Officer of Health. In the 1840s there were annual epidemics of cholera, typhus and other diseases. After the Irish famine and mass emmigration to Liverpool, overcrowding in Liverpool had got even worse and against this background the council appointed Dr Duncan to help with the problem.

Liverpool's first Sanitary Act in 1848 was the result of his efforts and those of Surveyor and Engineer, John Newlands and paved the way for national public health acts.