In a prolific and distinguished career Edward Lowbury pioneered the study of hospital infection, was a founder and first president of the Hospital Infection Society, and was a fellow of three medical royal colleges (pathologists, physicians, and surgeons) and of the Royal Society for Literature. He was, said his colleague and successor, Graham Ayliffe, a leader in dealing with burns infection, the problems of antibiotic resistance, and skin disinfection. He was awarded the OBE for his medical work when he retired in 1979.

His career and future specialty may have been determined when his general practitioner father and musical mother—she was a member of the Hallé family—gave him the middle names of Joseph Lister. He was educated at St Paul's School in London, University College, Oxford, and Guy's Medical School, taking a BSc in physiology on the way and qualifying in 1939. He did his house jobs at The London Hospital, and in 1941 …