Alexander Houston

Sir Alexander Houston
KBE CVO FRS FRSE
Director of Water Examination, Metropolitan Water Board
In office
1905 – 29 October 1933
Personal details
Born
Alexander Cruikshank Houston

18 September 1865
Mysore, India
Died29 October 1933(1933-10-29) (aged 68)
Hampstead, London, England

Sir Alexander Cruikshank Houston KBE CVO FRS FRSE (18 September 1865 – 29 October 1933) was an expert on water supply and public health, of Scottish ancestry, who rose to be Director of Water Examination for London's Metropolitan Water Board.[1]

Life

He was born on 18 September 1865 in Mysore in India the eldest son of Isabella Mitchell and her husband, Surgeon General John Houston of the Indian Medical Service (IMS). He was educated at Merchiston Castle School and then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with an MB in 1889. He then studied for a general science degree, graduating with a BSc in 1891, and a doctorate (DSc) in 1892.[2] In 1893 he began studies on lead poisoning within water supplies for the Local Government Board.

In 1897 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Andrew Douglas Maclagan, Alexander Crum Brown, Charles Hunter Stewart and Sir Arthur Mitchell.[3]

In 1898 he began working for London County Council and in 1899 was employed as a bacteriologist with the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal. From 1905 he became Director of Water Examinations, establishing water purity, for London and the Metropolitan area. He also looked at the effects of water supply on certain plants and milk production. He was sent to Lincoln during a typhoid epidemic to establish the link to water supply.[4]

In 1907 he worked on establishing a new and safe water supply for Cairo in Egypt and in the same year worked on the Belfast Health Inquiry. In 1913 he visited Ottawa in Canada with Sir Alexander Binnie to report on that city's water supply.[2]

He was created a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) in 1918[5] and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1919.[6] In 1931 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He received an honorary doctorate (LLD) from the University of Edinburgh shortly before he died.

He died at home in Hampstead on 29 October 1933.

Publications

  • Studies in Water Supplies (1914)
  • Rivers as Sources of Water Supply (1917)
  • Rural Water Supplies and their Purification (1918)

Family

In 1899 he married Ethel Hartley.

Artistic Recognition

His portrait photograph, by Walter Stoneman, is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Sir Alexander Cruikshank Houston, 1865—1933 | Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society". rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Alexander Cruikshank Houston". gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  3. ^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  4. ^ Roscoe, W. (1802). An Address Delivered Before the Proprietors of the Botanic Garden in Liverpool Previous to Opening the Garden, May 3, 1802: To which are Added the Laws of the Institution and a List of the Proprietors. J. M'Creery. pp. 1–52. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  5. ^ "No. 30730". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1918. p. 6686.
  6. ^ "No. 31379". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 May 1919. p. 7050.
  7. ^ "Sir Alexander Cruikshank Houston - Person - National Portrait Gallery". npg.org.uk. Retrieved 10 February 2018.