Features / history
Bristol’s pioneer in the isolation of infectious diseases
A plaque on the side of a bar at the top of Park Street remembers a physician whose skills could certainly be needed during the current coronavirus pandemic.
William Budd was born in 1811 in North Tawton, Devon, and died in 1880 in Clevedon, but he spent most of his life living in Bristol, including one home at what is now the Bristol & Bath Rum Distillery.
Budd worked as a doctor at St Peter’s Hospital on the site of what is now Castle Park and later became a physician at the BRI.
is needed now More than ever
The plaque on Park Street is on the house where he lived with his family (including his son, Arthur, who went on to play rugby for England) from 1853 to 1855,
It remembers him as a physician and epidemiologist who was a “pioneer in the isolation of infectious diseases”.
Does any know the secret of reincarnation? – photo by Martin Booth
One of the plaques in Bristol to William Budd is at the top of Park Street – photo by Martin Booth
In 1853, Budd recorded an outbreak of typhoid fever in Cowbridge in south Wales, becoming suspicious about water as a possible source of infection.
Budd also argued that poor hygiene and unsanitary living conditions contributed to the spread of typhoid fever, and recommended improved sanitary measures to slow and prevent transmission.
His suggestions of preventative measures including the sanitising of patients’ clothes, the use of disinfectants and the boiling of water is thought to have helped reduce the spread of cholera in Bristol, which he also believed was a waterborne disease.
The year of his death, 1880, was the same year that the typhoid bacillus, salmonella typhi, was isolated. He is buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery.
As well as the plaque on Park Street, there is another on Lansdown Place in Clifton where he also lived.
A ward is named after him at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, with the William Budd Health Centre within the Knowle West Health Park another lasting memory of one of Bristol’s most influential medical pioneers.
Knowle West Health Park is home to the William Budd Health Centre – photo: Knowle West Health Park
Another plaque remembering William Budd is at Lansdown Place in Clifton – photo by Martin Booth
Main photo: Wikimedia Commons
Read more: 15 Bristol plaques you might not have seen
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