 After a coronary thrombosis in the following year, Cohen decided to devote his life to the greater work of teaching.He was raised to the peerage as Baron Cohen of Birkenhead, of Birkenhead in the County Palatine of Chester, on 16 June 1956 and was elected President of the General Medical Council in 1961.In 1964, he became President of the Royal Society of Medicine, receiving the society's gold medal in 1971.