ABSTRACT
Edwin Chadwick was dubbed ‘the most hated man in England’ such was the contention around his social reforms. He was reviled by many of working classes for the poor laws he pioneered, which introduced means testing. Chadwick was also a hated figure for many amongst the wealthy because of the costs associated with his subsequent lead role in the introduction of a range of Public Health Acts. The Poor Law Commissioner role paved the way for Chadwick to then take up the mantle of public health. To put some perspective on the urgency of the reforms, Chadwick notes that the British death rate from the lack of these provisions exceeds that from military action. That high prosperity in respect to employment and wages, and various and abundant food, have afforded to the labouring classes no exemptions from attacks of epidemic disease, which have been as frequent and as fatal in periods of commercial and manufacturing prosperity as in any others.
