In the early days, before the Department was set up, public health was taught by senior government health officers on a part-time basis in the medical school. Dr Gilbert Brooke was the first lecturer in public health. Then, the teaching of public health focused on hygiene, sanitation and infectious diseases. In 1936, (Col) Dr John William Scharff, who was lecturing on public health, introduced a health and sanitary survey of rural villages as part of the curriculum. The Second World War interuppted medical education from December 1941 to 1946.

The Department started as the Department of Social Medicine and Public Health in 1948, Dr John H Strahan was appointed as its first professor. In 1947, a Commission was established under Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders to enquire into and make recommendations concerning university education in Malaya and Singapore. It recommended the amalgamation of King Edward VII College of Medicine and Raffles College to form the University of Malaya.

In October 1949, the University of Malaya was established. The King Edward VII College of Medicine became the Faculty of Medicine in University of Malaya. Subsequently two divisions of the University of Malaya were formed, one in Kuala Lumpur and the other in Singapore. In 1960, the Governments of Singapore and the Federation of Malaya both indicated their intention that the Singapore Division and the Kuala Lumpur Division of the University of Malaya should become autonomous, separate, national universities in their respective countries. The Singapore Division eventually became the University of Singapore and the Kuala Lumpur Division remain as University of Malaya.