What does the biography of Duncan Forbes MBE (1873-1941), Medical Officer of Health for Brighton (1908-1938), reveal about managing pandemics?

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the national lockdowns of 2020/2021 illustrate how modern public health systems are founded on empirical evidence and contemporary understanding of disease transmission. Duncan Forbes was one of the earliest sanitarians in Britain to propose and implement a new understanding of infectious disease control. Starting his early career in Manchester and Cambridge, his eventual tenure as Brighton's longest-serving medical officer of health (MOH) left an indelible mark by challenging the entrenched tradition of terminal disinfection and by devising his "Brighton methods" for the care of tubercular patients.