William Cooke MD MRCS (1785–1873) – General Practitioner, Founder of the Hunterian Society and Deacon of the Congregational Church

Farmer’s son William Cooke completed his medical training at Barts before embarking on a 60-year career as a general practitioner in and around London. In 1819, he was a co-founder, and for 20 years secretary, of the Hunterian Society which continues to provide education to its members. He was the author of several books where his views on the importance of post-mortem examinations and the interrelationships of body and mind in disease were discussed. He was a prominent non-conformist and became a deacon in the Congregational Church. He died in 1873, aged 87