Dr Rosemary Cresswell
Wellcome-funded networks and events co-ordinator
Between 2018 and 2022, Rosemary was the Chair of the Society for the Social History of Medicine, and still remains a member of the Executive Committee.
Rosemary is a historian of health, humanitarianism, charity and voluntarism from c.1850-2020. She joined the University of Oxford Department of Continuing Education (OUDCE) as a Departmental Lecturer in Lifelong Learning (History) in 2024, and is a fellow of Kellogg College. She Rosemary is part-time at OUDCE and until July 2025 is also a Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, with the ‘Border Crossings: Charity and Voluntarism in Britain’s mixed economy of health care since 1948’ project, funded by Wellcome.
Rosemary’s first book, Rosemary Wall, Bacteria in Britain, 1880-1939 (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2013), investigated the use of bacteriology in hospitals, workplaces and local communities. She is currently writing The History of the British Red Cross, 1870-2020: Health and Humanitarianism, under contract with Bloomsbury, and has published various chapters and articles on the history of infectious disease, health care, and humanitarianism. She has recently been the Principal Investigator for research grants including: ‘Crossing Boundaries: The History of First Aid in Britain and France, 1909-1989’, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, with Co-Investigator Barry Doyle (2016-2021); ‘Oxfam and the History of War, Health and Humanitarianism’, funded by Wellcome (2019-21); ‘War, Humanitarianism and the British Red Cross’, University of Oxford Bodleian Libraries Sassoon Visiting Fellowship (2017).