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Hadleigh Nub News delves into the life of former Hadleigh resident, neurologist Howard Henry Tooth.

Tooth was born on 22 April 1856 to Frederick Tooth of Hove, Sussex. He went to school at Rugby School and, consequently, St. John's College, Cambridge.

In 1877, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He received a Master of Arts in 1881.

After his university career, he studied at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, achieving his MD in 1885. In 1887, he later became both physician at the London Metropolitan Hospital and assistant physician at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic.

In 1894, he taught a post-graduate course on Cranial Nerves at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic.

His most prolific research culminated in him being one of the discoverers of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, along with Jean-Martin Charcot and Pierre Marie. It is a hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy. It is characterised by progressive loss of muscle tissue and touch sensation across various parts of the body. It affects about one in 2500 people.

Alongside his medical career, he spent a long period of time in the military. During the Boer War, he was stationed in South Africa.

Over World War I, he spent time in London, in Malta as a consulting physician to the troops and in Italy as a consultant to the British forces.

His services during his time led to his name being mentioned in dispatches twice.

Tooth was married twice. His first marriage was to Mary Beatrice Price, by whom he had a daughter. His second wife was Helen Katherine Chilver with whom he had two sons and a daughter.

He passed away at home in Hadleigh in 1925.a

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