27/02/2026
This Day on History: on the 27th February 1872 the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, and his mother Queen Victoria were greeted at Temple Bar by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London where a worship service of thanksgiving was held for the Prince's recovery from Typhoid. The procession is commemorated beneath a statue of Edward which stands at the entrance to the city where Fleet Street meets the Strand.
The Prince's illness, contracted in the fall of 1871 changed the narrative of the disease and shaped the course of public health policy in England. For the best part of the century the disease had been seen as a poor persons problem... a self-inflicted lapse of morality that could be solved if only the great unwashed would better themselves. Bertie's case, contracted from poor drainage at a house party he had attended proved that no one was immune. By the end of 1872 Parliament had passed a public health act which included sanitary regulation, the appointment of local medical officers and public health officials and a robust system to track disease outbreaks.
