George Northcroft was born in 1869. He was educated at Woodhouse Grove and Leys School in Cambridge. From the latter he won a scholarship to study dentistry at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, obtaining a Doctorate of Dental Surgery in 1890. To practice in England Northcroft required an English qualification so he enrolled at the London School of Dental Surgery (later becoming the Royal Dental Hospital) from where he obtained a LDS in 1892. Northcroft practised in Windsor for 8 years before moving to Wimpole Street and later Harley Street. Northcroft’s practice was located in his family home where he lived with his wife and three children.
Northcroft was an active member of the dental profession. He joined the BDA in 1893, becoming Treasurer in 1907, President in 1932 and Chairman of the Rep Board in 1933. He also took an active role in maintaining the museum. Northcroft was also a member of the Odontological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, of the American Dental Society of Europe, and of the European Orthodontic Society, of which he was President in 1927.
Northcroft initiated the formation of the BSSO in 1907 when he invited 15 of his colleagues with an interest in orthodontics to a meeting at his practice to discuss establishing a society for the study and promotion of orthodontics. Northcroft was concerned with understanding normal growth and its relation to the aetiology of malocclusion. He observed the growth of the teeth and jaws of his own children, taking a set of growth study models of his son William between the ages of 6 – 21. These masks are kept in the BOS Museum.
