DR JAMES Burn Russell was appointed in 1872 as the city’s first full-time Medical Officer of Health. He worked tirelessly for the city’s poor and his crusade to improve living conditions and health provision lasted more than a quarter of a century. He was one of the truly great figures of late Victorian Glasgow Dr Russell was born on Robertson Street in 1837, amid the noise and bustle of the Broomielaw. He was brought up in his grandfather’s house in the more rural surroundings of Rutherglen. He went to the High School and then to Glasgow University, where he graduated with a BA in 1858 and Doctor of Medicine and Master in Surgery in 1862.