Herbert Herbert

Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Herbert, FRCS (25 February 1865 – 19 March 1942) was a British ophthalmologist and officer in the Indian Medical Service (IMS), known for his work on trachoma, cataract and glaucoma. Later, he was vice-president of the Ophthalmological Society of the UK.

Herbert was commissioned with the IMS in 1887, and served in the Middle East and the Gulf of Aden in 1890, as surgeon. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1891, and around that time took an interest in diseases of the eye. In 1892, he was appointed professor at the Grant Medical College (GMC) and first surgeon at the Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital (JJ Hospital). The following year, he became civil surgeon at Kheda, Gujarat. In India, he reported on cholera epidemics and his papers included "Rainfall and Seasonal Cholera" (1894) and "The Natural History of Hardwar Fair Cholera Outbreaks" (1895). In 1897 he was ophthalmic surgeon to JJ Hospital and professor of ophthalmic surgery at GMC. He described "the pits" in people with trachoma, the "trap-door" method of sclerotomy in glaucoma, features of superficial punctate keratitis, and was the first to document the presence of eosinophils in conjunctivitis.

He returned to England following retirement in 1907, and was appointed at first surgeon then consulting surgeon to the Midland Eye Infirmary, Nottingham. He rejoined the IMS during the First World War and held posts on hospital ships, at the Indian Hospital at Brockenhurst, and in India. After the war, he settled in Sussex and continued to consult in matters of the eye, to the Worthing Hospital, and in pathology to the Sussex Eye Hospital, Brighton.