Chadwick, Edwin

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Chadwick, Edwin (1800–90). Reformer. John Stuart Mill called Chadwick ‘one of the organising and contriving minds of the age’, and the great moment in his life came in 1829 when he met the aged Jeremy Bentham and became his literary secretary. Henceforward, Chadwick was utilitarianism in action. He was born in Manchester, his family moved to London when he was 10, and he became a lawyer. In 1832 he was appointed to the Poor Law Commission and the following year to the commission on children in factories. His influence on both reports was very great and he was appointed secretary to the Poor Law Commission in 1834, a post which brought him savage criticism. Another of his abiding interests was sanitary reform and from 1848 to 1854 he served as a commissioner on the new Board of Health. He was then rather pointedly pensioned off and his public career closed, though he continued to campaign, particularly for competitive examinations in the civil service. Chadwick's character made him not only an exemplar but a caricature of utilitarian reform. He was hard-working, rigorous, and determined, but also tactless, unhumorous, impatient, dogmatic, and over-confident. Significantly, he was made to wait for his knighthood until he was 89.

J. A. Cannon

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