Description

Rogers (1821-89) was an English physician and campaigning medical officer who for 40 years promoted reform in the administration of the Poor Law. After setting up a medical practice in London in 1844 he became a supernumerary medical officer at St. Anne's, Soho in 1855 on the occasion of an outbreak of cholera, and the following year was appointed medical officer to the Strand workhouse. Conditions there were very bad and Rogers had the workhouse master, George Catch, removed. In 1861 he came before the select committee of the House of Commons speaking on the supply of drugs to workhouse infirmaries and his suggestions were adopted. Notably, his evidence was largely responsible for bringing about the Metropolitan Poor Law Act of 1867. However, his zeal for reform resulted in the president of the poor-law board removing him from office in1868, and he suffered similar consequences in 1872 as medical officer of the Westminster Infirmary but in this instance he was reinstated after his suspension. Rogers founded and was for some time president of the Poor Law Medical Officers Association and also helped to establish the Association for the Improvement of the Infirmaries of London Workhouses. His Reminiscences were published posthumously in 1889, the year of his death, edited and with a preface by his younger brother Thorold, an economist, historian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880-86 and who was recognised as an advocate of social justice.