Thomas Horder, 1st Baron Horder

Thomas Jeeves Horder, 1st Baron Horder, GCVO (7 January 1871 – 13 August 1955) was an English physician recognized as a leading clinician and diagnostician of his day.

Early life and education

Thomas Jeeves Horder

Thomas Jeeves Horder was born on 7 January 1871, the son of draper Albert Horder, in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Jeeves was his mother's maiden name. He was educated privately, and at the University of London and St Bartholomew's Hospital, London.

Career

Horder began his career at St Bartholomew's Hospital and, when still quite young, successfully made a difficult diagnosis on King Edward VII which made his reputation. His patients included every British monarch from Edward VII to Elizabeth II (except Edward VIII). They also included two prime ministers, Ramsay MacDonald and Bonar Law, and labour leader Hugh Gaitskell.

He was involved in many official committees including advising the Ministry of Food during World War II. After the war he opposed many of Aneurin Bevan's plans for a national health service and may have helped modify some of those less palatable to the medical profession.

He held the positions of Deputy Lieutenant County of Hampshire; Extra Physician to the Queen (formerly Extra Physician to King George VI); and Consulting Physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital (1912–1936). Knighted in 1918, he was created a Baronet in 1923. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Horder, of Ashford in the County of Southampton on 23 January 1933.

Horder served as president of the British Eugenics Society from 1935 to 1949 and as president of the Cremation Society of Great Britain from 1940 to his death in 1955.

He was President of The Peckham Experiment in 1949.

Marriage and children

In 1902 Horder married Geraldine Rose Doggett (died 1954), of Newnham Manor, Hertfordshire. Their son was the publisher Mervyn Horder (died 1997). Their daughter Joy Horder was mother to British architect Edward Cullinan and married to a chief physician at St Bartholomew's Hospital.

Death and afterward

He lived for many years at Steep near Petersfield, Hampshire where he died on 13 August 1955.

• Clinical Pathology in Practice (Frowde, 1910)
• Cerebro-Spinal Fever (Hodder & Stoughton, 1915)
• Medical Notes (Hodder & Stoughton, 1921)
• The Essentials of Medical Diagnosis with A E Gow (Cassell & Co, 1928;)
• Health and a Day (Dent, 1938)
• Obscurantism (Watts & Co., 1938)
• Lessons Taught by War-time Feeding (1943)
• Rheumatism (H.K. Lewis & Co. Ltd., 1944)
• Diet and Rheumatism (1945)
• Health and Social Welfare annuals, editor, 1944–1945 and 1945–1946
• The British Encyclopaedia of Medical Practice, editor, 1950–1952
• Fifty Years of Medicine (Duckworth, 1953)
• Bread: The Chemistry and Nutrition of Flour and Bread with Sir Charles Dodds and T Moran (Constable, 1954)

• 1918: Knight Bachelor
• 1923: created Baronet of Shaston
• 1925: Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
• 1933: created 1st Baron Horder, of Ashford in the County of Southampton
• 1938: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
• Hon. DCL (Dunelm.)
• Hon. MD (Melbourne and Adelaide)
• FRCP