May Bill RIP. He was very clever and could be full of wry humor. I want to remember him at our weekly meetings in a 18th c. pub called The Beach in our neighborhood of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. We would hang out there with a Canadian ex-patriot colleague, Roger Cooter, who also lived nearby. They outdrank me two pints to one but no one was counting who would buy the next round. It was a lot of fun.

A note from all of us here at the LSHTM Centre for History in Public Health to express our sadness at this news. Bill was a friend of our Centre and much admired for inhabiting an intellectual realm that spanned urban history, economic history, medical history, environmental history and social medicine, always analytical and theory-led. A great contribution.

Bill was a friend and colleague with enormous generosity at times when friends needed it, and for me it meant a lot during my move from the US to Manchester where he made me at home and gave immense editorial help. His scholarship is impeccable and with a lasting relevance in environmental history. Rest in Peace Bill