Edward Ballard

Edward Ballard (15 April 1820 – 19 January 1897) was a 19th-century English physician, best known for his reports on the unsanitary conditions in which most of Victorian England lived.

Ballard was born in Islington, Middlesex, the son Edward George Ballard, the English writer, and Mary Ann Shadgett. He was educated at Islington Proprietary School and at University College, London, from which he received his doctorate in medicine in 1843.

Together with Alfred Baring Garrod, Ballard co-authored Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, published in 1845, the first medical textbook on what is now known as clinical pharmacology. Admitted a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Fellow of the Royal Society, Ballard is best known for his work as the Medical Officer for Health at the Local Government Board, a position in which he wrote numerous reports on the unsanitary conditions in which the masses of Victorian England lived.

Ballard married, firstly, in 1846 Julia Hannah, daughter of Charles Huggons of London, by whom he had two sons and one daughter, and secondly, Emmeline, daughter of John Halse of London, by whom he had a son and a daughter, Robert and Alice.