E. A. Underwood | |
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| Born | Edgar Ashworth Underwood 9 March 1899 Dumfries, Scotland |
| Died | 6 March 1980 (aged 80) Walton-on-Thames, England |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Physician |
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| Relatives | Charles Singer |
| Medical career | |
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Edgar Ashworth Underwood (9 March 1899 – 6 March 1980) was a Scottish physician who began his career in public health and later became director of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.
Between 1917 and 1919 Underwood served in the Cameron Highlanders. During his early medical training he served as vice-president of the Glasgow Medico-Chirurgical Society and won the Cullen Medal for materia medica and the Hunter medals for midwifery and clinical surgery. In 1929 he was appointed deputy medical officer of health (MOH) in Rotherham and then medical superintendent of Oakwood Sanatorium, 1929–1931. Later he became deputy MOH in Leeds, and then MOH in Shoreditch and in West Ham. His early publications focused on tuberculosis and epidemiology, including the textbook A Manual of Tuberculosis (1931), while simultaneously publishing on history of medicine. He also contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Underwood published history of medicine–related articles regularly in the Royal Society of Medicine Proceedings, and became president of the History of Medicine Society of the Royal Society of Medicine, London, from 1948 to 1950.