Dr Cecil Cook – An Introduction

Dr Cecil Cook (aka Mick) was a rare public servant, an intellectual, who had expertise in seven health and medical subjects and worked in seven Government agencies. He won the Wandsworth Scholarship and applied its three years to researching the epidemiology of Leprosy. He had leading roles in the Northern Territory in medical services, Aboriginal protection, health and quarantine. His military hygiene training imposed discipline on individuals and camps and in the war zone.

Post-war he was Commissioner for Public Health in Western Australia, where he modernised the function and created a new national model. Moving to Commonwealth Health he researched Aboriginal health, connecting departmental health and welfare programs. He reconnected the NHMRC with the medical profession and directed many initiatives in the nation’s health – infant mortality, food additives and safety, tobacco and lung cancer and the national vaccination campaign for Poliomyelitis.

Finally, after retiring from the Commonwealth at 65, Cook spent a decade in the pharmaceutical industry, negotiating with the NHMRC.