William Collins (English surgeon)

Sir William Job Collins was an English surgeon, ophthalmologist and Liberal politician, born in Regent's Park, London, on 9 May 1859 and died on 11 December 1946. He trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital, took his medical degree at the University of London in 1881 and specialised in anatomy and ophthalmology, receiving the Oxford Doyne Ophthalmic Medal in 1918. He was a convinced opponent of compulsory smallpox vaccination, spoke for the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination and was one of only two sceptics among the fifteen members of the Royal Commission on Vaccination of 1889 to 1896, views that according to his Times obituary barred his progress toward the staff of his medical school. He then turned to public life, chairing the London County Council in 1897 and its first education committee in 1904, sitting in Parliament for St Pancras West and later Derby, and promoting the Metropolitan Ambulance Act that led to the London ambulance service.