Background
Cohen was born on February 21, 1900 in Born in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, England.
Cohen was born on February 21, 1900 in Born in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, England.
He graduated from the University of Liverpool medical school.
At the age of thirty-four he became a professor of medicine, at Liverpool medical school and divided his time between this part-time appointment and his large private practice. In 1943 he was appointed a member of the council of the Royal College of Physicians and presided over many important national committees.
Cohen was one of the architects of the British National Health Service (1949). He was appointed chairman of the Central Health Services Council and knighted in recognition of his services to British medicine. In 1952 he became president of the British Medical Association and later of the Royal Society of Medicine and the General Medical Council.
From 1950, Cohen took an active interest in the history of medicine, serving as president of the British Society for the History of Medicine and as chairman of the History of Medicine panel of the Wellcome Trust.
Lord Cohen retired from the professorship in 1965 but continued his communal work until his death.
Cohen was short of stature, soft spoken, and rarely raised his voice above a whisper in normal conversation. He was a great orator with a ready wit and much in demand as an after-dinner speaker. He was also a superb organizer with a keen legal mind, which served him well as a mediator, innovator, and judge while active on the General Medical Council.
Quotes from others about the person
Many anecdotes about their famous professor circulated among students at the medical school. One concerned a senior assistant with whom he had disagreed over a point in treatment. Exasperated by his assistant’s assertions he was heard to say “Who do you think you are? God Almighty?” to which the subordinate replied, “No, sir, only his second-in-command!”
In 1956 he became a life peer, the first English provincial physician to receive this honor.
In his maiden speech in the House of Lords he spoke on the subject of vivisection and defended Jewish dietary methods of slaughter as humane against anti-Semitic attempts to have Jewish ritual slaughter banned in England.