Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn MD LLD FRCSE (8 May 1826 – 30 September 1914) was a Scottish surgeon,

forensic scientist Forensic science combines principles of law and science to investigate criminal activity. Through crime scene investigations and laboratory analysis, forensic scientists are able to link suspects to evidence. An example is determining the time and ...

and

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

official. He served for 46 years as Edinburgh's first

Medical Officer of Health A medical officer of health, also known as a medical health officer, chief health officer, chief public health officer or district medical officer, is the title commonly used for the senior government official of a health department, usually at a m ...

, during which time he brought about significant improvements in the living conditions and the health of the city's inhabitants. He also served as a police surgeon and medical adviser in Scottish criminal cases.

Early life and education

Henry Littlejohn was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 8 May 1826 to Isabella Duncan and Thomas Littlejohn, a master baker of 33 Leith Street. He studied at the

Perth Academy Perth Academy is a state comprehensive secondary school in Perth, Scotland. It was founded in 1696. The institution is a non-denominational one. The school occupies ground on the side of a hill in the Viewlands area of Perth, and is within the P ...

before attending the

Royal High School, Edinburgh The Royal High School (RHS) of Edinburgh is a co-educational school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It serves around 1,400 pupils drawn from four feeder pr ...

(1838 to 1841). He went on to study medicine at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, graduating in 1847. He became a Licentiate of the

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The RCSEd has five faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical and healthcare specialities. Its main campus is locate ...

in the same year.

Medical and teaching career

From 1847 to 1848, Littlejohn worked as a house surgeon at the

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was established in 1729, and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire."In Com ...

. After a short period of study in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, he returned to the Infirmary as an assistant pathologist. This was followed by a brief spell in general practice. He was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1854. In 1856 he became a lecturer in

medical jurisprudence Medical jurisprudence or legal medicine is the branch of science and medicine involving the study and application of scientific and medical knowledge to legal problems, such as inquests, and in the field of law. As modern medicine is a legal ...

at the

Edinburgh Extramural School of Medicine Extramural medical education in Edinburgh began over 200 years before the university medical faculty was founded in 1726 and distance learning, extramural teaching continued thereafter for a further 200 years. Extramural is academic education wh ...

Surgeons' Hall Surgeons' Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland, is the headquarters of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd). It houses the Surgeons' Hall Museum, and the library and archive of the RCSEd. The present Surgeons' Hall was designed by William ...

, Edinburgh.

Medical Officer of Health

In 1862, Littlejohn was appointed Edinburgh's first Medical Officer of Health. This was at a time when many of the town's inhabitants were living in squalor, in filthy overcrowded tenements, often with no water supply and with little or no sanitation. Disease was rampant. There had been two recent

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

epidemics, while

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often ther ...

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...

and

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

were endemic. During his first three years in the post, Littlejohn carried out a meticulous investigation into the living conditions and the state of health of the town's inhabitants. His report, published in 1865, contained 120 pages of detailed statistics, analysing conditions in over one thousand separate streets, closes and tenements. It included extensive data on the prevalence of the most common diseases as well as historical data on earlier epidemics. The report convincingly demonstrated the link between deprivation, disease and mortality. With the backing of Littlejohn's report, the

Lord Provost A lord provost () is the convenor of the local authority, the civic head and the lord-lieutenant of one of the principal cities of Scotland. The office is similar to that of a lord mayor. Only the cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Stirlin ...

, William Chambers, and the Town Council launched an ambitious programme of

urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

in Edinburgh. This resulted in the demolition of the worst slums and created the largely Victorian Old Town that exists today. On Littlejohn's recommendation, the council also brought in regulations governing water supply, sewage, building standards, food hygiene, waste disposal and the management of cemeteries. In order to track and anticipate the spread of infectious diseases through the population, Littlejohn campaigned for legal powers to compel medical practitioners to notify him of all cases of the most infectious diseases. Despite opposition from doctors, a clause was added to the 1879 Edinburgh Municipal Police Act making such notification compulsory – the first legislation of its kind in Britain. Significantly, the Act placed responsibility for notification on the attending doctor rather than the householder. This measure was extended to the whole of Scotland through the 1897 Public Health (Scotland) Act. In 1900, Littlejohn identified a link between

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

smoking and

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, 62 years before the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

produced a report which acknowledged such a link. During Littlejohn's 46 years as Medical Officer of Health, the death rate in Edinburgh fell from 26 per thousand to 17 per thousand. There was a dramatic drop in outbreaks of smallpox and typhus. His introduction of compulsory notification of infectious diseases has been described as 'one of the major advances in public health of the 19th century'.

Police surgeon and forensic scientist

Littlejohn enjoyed a parallel career in forensic science and criminal investigation. In 1854, the Town Council appointed him to the part-time post of police surgeon. He went on to serve as medical adviser to the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

in Scottish criminal cases, in which role he would continue for over 50 years. He acted as

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

in many criminal trials. These included three cases of child murder, the high-profile

Ardlamont murder The Ardlamont Murder (also known as the Ardlamont Mystery and the Monson Case), which took place in Argyll, Scotland, on 10 August 1893, gave rise to two high-profile court cases: a murder trial in Edinburgh (''HM Advocate v Monson''), and a Engl ...

, and a case of culpable homicide resulting from a railway accident which claimed twenty lives. At the time of his retirement in 1908, the ''Scotsman'' noted that "there was no great criminal trial in the High Court in which he did not act as a Crown witness." One of his most famous cases was that of the wife-murderer,

Eugene Chantrelle Eugène circa 1867 Elizabeth circa 1876 Eugène Marie Chantrelle murdered his wife and former pupil Elizabeth Chantrelle (née Dyer) on 2 January 1878, and was convicted for his crimes and hanged at Calton Prison in Edinburgh, Scotland. The tr ...

. On the first day of 1878, Chantrelle's wife, Elizabeth, became violently ill, and died the next day. A broken gas pipe was discovered in her bedroom, and the police at first assumed that her death was the result of accidental gas poisoning. Littlejohn was not satisfied. Analysing some vomit found on her nightgown, he detected traces of opium. He ordered a full

post mortem An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death; ...

, which revealed that she had died of narcotic poisoning. Chantrelle was arrested, tried for murder, convicted and executed, mainly on Littlejohn's evidence.

Appointments and honours

In 1855 Littlejohn was elected a member of the

Harveian Society of Edinburgh The Harveian Society of Edinburgh was founded in April 1782 by Andrew Duncan (physician, born 1744), Andrew Duncan. The Society holds an annual Festival in honour of the life and works of William Harvey, the physician who first correctly des ...

and served as president in 1881. He was elected president of the

in 1875. From 1883 to 1885 he served as president of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society. He received an honorary LLD from the University of Edinburgh in 1893. In the same year, he became president of the

Royal Institute of Public Health Royal Institute of Public Health merged in 2008 with the Royal Society for Health to form Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). History The institute was the amalgamation of a few societies. The Metropolitan Association of Medical Officers o ...

. He was knighted by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

in 1895.

Later life and family

In his later life, Littlejohn lived at 24 Royal Circus in Edinburgh's Second New Town. He retired from public office on 10 March 1908, at the age of 82. His wife was Isabella Jane, daughter of H. Harvey. His son was Henry Harvey Littlejohn (1862–1927) (normally just called Harvey Littlejohn during his life but posthumously largely called Henry) who followed in his father's footsteps as a forensic scientist and medical officer, and who adopted similar techniques of investigation and problem solving. Littlejohn died at his country house, Benreoch, near Arrochar,

Dunbartonshire Dunbartonshire () or the County of Dumbarton is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbar ...

, on 30 September 1914. A strong proponent of

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...

, he was cremated at the Glasgow Crematorium. His ashes were interred at the

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...

in Edinburgh. His grave is on the edge of the southern path towards the west end. He is buried with his wife, and their son and daughter.