[[File:Sir_George_Edward_Godber.jpg|thumb|right|Sir George Godber GCB]]
'''Sir George Edward Godber''', [[Order of the Bath|GCB]] (4 August, 1908 – 7 February, 2009) served as [[Chief Medical Officer (United Kingdom)|Chief Medical Officer]] for Her Majesty's Government in [[England]] from 1960–19731960 to 1973 and was instrumental in the establishment of the [[National Health Service]] (NHS).<ref>{{cite news|last1=Klein|first1=Rudolf|title=The state and the profession: the politics of the double bed|url=http://www.sochealth.co.uk/2015/03/19/25472/|accessdate=13 October 2015|publisher=British Medical Journal|date=3 October 1990}}</ref>
The third of seven children of a [[Bedfordshire]] farmer, Godber was educated at [[Bedford Modern School]] between 1917 and 1920,<ref>Joyce Godber, ''The Harpur Trust 1552-19731552–1973'', 1973, p.169</ref> at [[Bedford School]] between 1920 and 1927,<ref>Obituary, ''The Ousel'', 2009, pp.167-168167–168</ref> and at [[New College, Oxford]], where he read medicine and gained a rowing blue. He did his clinical training at The [[London Hospital]]. As he had lost an eye in an accident the medical specialities open to him were limited. In 1939 he joined the Ministry of Health and worked in Birmingham administering the wartime [[Emergency Medical Services 1939-1945|Emergency Medical Services]] before the NHS was formed in 1948. He also served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer from 1950 to 1960.
He was instrumental is persuading the [[Royal College of Physicians]] to form a committee on smoking and lung cancer in 1958. Their report [http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/sites/default/files/smoking-and-health-1962.pdf Smoking and Health], published in 1962 was important in bringing the link to the attention of the public.
