Sir Albert Ruskin Cook,

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OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(22 March 1870 – 23 April 1951) was a British medical missionary in Uganda, and the founder of

Mulago Hospital Mulago National Specialised Hospital, also known as Mulago National Referral Hospital, is a component of Mulago Hospital Complex, the teaching facility of Makerere University College of Health Sciences. It is the largest public hospital in Ug ...

and Mengo Hospital. Together with his wife, Katharine Cook (1863–1938), he established a maternity training school in Uganda.

Medical and missionary career

Albert Cook was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, London in 1870. His parents were Dr. W.H. Cook and Harriet Bickersteth Cook. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1893 with a bachelor's degree, and from St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1895 as a bachelor of medicine. He became a doctor of medicine in 1901. In 1896, Albert Cook went to Uganda with a Church Missionary Society mission, and in 1897 he established Mengo Hospital, the oldest hospital in East Africa. In 1899 he was joined by his older brother

John Howard Cook John Howard Cook, M.S., F.R.C.S. (30 May 1872 – 19 September 1946) was a British physician, missionary, lecturer, and disease consultant. With his brother he is known for the formation of the Mengo Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. Working alongside hi ...

, a surgeon and ophthalmologist. Albert Cook married Katharine Timpson, a missionary nurse, in 1900, with whom he had two daughters and a son. Albert Ruskin Cook 1897

Sir Albert Cook was unusual among medical missionaries because of his efforts to train Africans to become skilled medical workers. He and his wife opened a school for midwives at Mengo and authored a manual of midwifery in

Ganda Ganda may refer to: Places * Ganda, Angola * Ganda, Tibet, China * Ganda, the ancient Latin name of Ghent, a city in Belgium Other uses * Baganda or Ganda, a people of Uganda ** Luganda or Ganda language, a language of Uganda * ''Ganda'' and "Ga ...

, the local language (Amagezi Agokuzalisa; published by Sheldon Press, London). Albert Cook started training African medical assistants at Mulago during the First World War, and in the 1920s, encouraged the opening of a medical College that initially trained Africans to the level defined by the colonial government as "Asian sub-assistant surgeon". The school grew to become a fully fledged medical school in his lifetime. Cook established a treatment centre for the venereal diseases and sleeping sickness in 1913, which later became Mulago Hospital. He was president of the Uganda Branch of the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

(BMA) between 1914 and 1918, during which time he founded a school for African medical assistants.

Honours

Cook was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1918, the

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in 1922, and received a knighthood in 1932. In 1936–37, he was again president of BMA (Uganda Branch). Sir Albert Cook died on 23 April 1951 in Kampala.

Medical and missionary career

Honours

References

Further reading