Nicol Spence Galbraith

Nicol Spence Galbraith (17 March 1927 – 7 August 2008), was a British physician in public health, and founding director of the Central Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC). The results of his efforts were demonstrated in 1978, when he represented the PHLS following the smallpox outbreak in Birmingham. Five years later, he warned the government of contaminated blood products.

In 1958, Galbraith joined the Epidemiological Research Laboratory of the Central PHLS, Colindale, which at the time was part of the Medical Research Council (MRC). After five years of working with vaccine trials, polio vaccine safety, and monitoring of food bourne disease, he was appointed deputy medical officer of health for Newham, east London, and in 1974 became the area medical officer. In 1976, he re-joined the PHLS and as director of the CDSC, set up teaching courses for NHS epidemiologists, and improved surveillance programmes in infectious disease.

In 1991, Galbraith was awarded the Jenner Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, and in 1994, he delivered the John Snow Society's Pumphandle Lecture.