Charles Joseph Singer (MA, DM, D.Litt., Hon D.Sc., FRCP) was born on 2 November 1876 in London. He studied at University College London, and from 1896-99 he studied zoology at Oxford, graduating BA, BCh. In 1903 he qualified from St Mary's Hospital Medical School MRCS LRCP. He gained other degrees honours during his career: MA MD; FRCP; Honorary DSc. From 1904-1908 Singer held various hospital posts in England and abroad, including Sussex County Hospital; Brighton; Government House, Singapore; Abyssinia (Medical Officer to expedition); Malta and Salonica, where he returned during the First World War when he served with the RAMC.
Singer held various posts throughout his career: Registrar to the Cancer Hospital, London; Physician to Dreadnought Hospital; Lecturer in history of medicine at University College London, as well as work abroad, including Visiting Professor at University of California, Berkley.
He married Dorothea Waley Cohen, eldest daughter of Nathaniel L Cohen and Julia M Waley in 1910, with whom he was awarded the Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society of America.
He held a number of secretaryships and presidential posts, including Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine (Historical Section), 1916-1919; President RSM (Historical Section), 1920-1922; President of Third International Congress of History of Medicine, 1922 and President of Acad?mie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences. He retired in 1942.
Charles Singer died on 10 June, 1960 at home in Par, Cornwall. Dorothea Singer died on 24 June, 1964.
From the guide to the Papers of: Singer, Charles Joseph (1876-1960), and Singer, Dorothea Waley (1882-1964), 1878-1964, (Wellcome Library)
