William Brewer studied medicine at Edinburgh. After qualifying in 1834, he remained aloof from practice and devoted his life to philanthropy and public service. The parochial schools of St. George’s, Hanover Square, in London and the Milliners’ and Dressmakers’ Associations were among various charitable institutions to benefit from his generous patronage. His name, however, is chiefly remembered for his efforts in founding the Metropolitan Asylums Board, established with the object of controlling infectious diseases and providing hospital facilities for the poorer classes in London, and for his work as the Board’s first chairman, from 1867 until his death. He was chairman, too, of the Sanitary Committee of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Brewer sat in Parliament as Liberal Member for Colchester from 1868 to 1874. He was a man of cultured artistic and literary tastes, and the author of a historical novel.

G H Brown

[Lancet, 1881; B.M.J., 1881; Medical Times and Gazette, 1881]