IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0120 GC/161
Held at: Wellcome Library
Title: Christophers, Sir (Samuel) Rickard, CIE, OBE, FRS (1873-1978)
Date(s): 20th century
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 1 box and 1 file
Name of creator(s): Christophers | Sir | (Samuel) Rickard | 1873-1978 | Knight | protozoologist and expert in tropical medicine
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Sir Rickard Christophers, born 1873; Graduated MB, ChB (Liverpool), 1896; Early medical appointments included ship's doctor - Amazon basin; Malaria Commission (Royal Society/Colonial Office), 1898-1901; studied techniques in Italy with Golgi in Pavia re cycles in tertian and quartan malaria, with Grassi in Rome re transmission of human malaria by mosquito, 1898; Africa: 1899 based in Blantyre, Nyasaland, 1900-1901 in West Africa. Established connection between blackwater fever and malaria. First recognition of endemic malaria in indigenous population; Commission moved to India. In this and subsequent IMS work, established foundation on which all subsequent work on malaria has been built: different species of Anopheles mosquito have different breeding places and feeding habits, so control operations should be preceded by a careful survey of local conditions, 1901; Indian Medical Service, 1902-1932; Anti-malarial operations at Mian Mir, subsequently investigated Charles Donovan's findings in Madras re newly described cause of Kala-azar (Leishmaniasis), 1902; First Director of the King Institute of Preventive Medicine, 1904-1908; Investigated violent epidemic of malaria in the Punjab. Led to the establishment of the Central Malaria Bureau at the Central Research Institute, Kasauli, with SRC as Officer in Charge, 1909; Awarded CIE, 1915; Published standard work on the anopheline mosquitoes of India, 'A revision of the nomenclature of Indian Anophelini', Indian J. Med. Res, 3, 454-488, 1916; War service, DADMS (Sanitation), Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force. Director of Central Laboratory on the ship Elphinstone, moored in the Shatt-el-Arab at Basra. [Senior staff: WDH Stephenson, IMS, senior bacteriologist; Dr Miskin, bacteriologist; Dr Bassett, chemist; Dr A J Grove, entomologist; Rev Aitken, amateur entomologist; P J Barraud, entomologist; and H E Shortt, IMS, protozoologist and malariologist]; Undertook malaria surveys of areas in which troops operating, and studied `oriental sore', transmitted by bite of phlebotomine flies, 1916; Returned to the Central Malaria Bureau as Deputy Director of the Central Research Institute. Malaria research expanded to become the Malaria Survey of India under J A Sinton, 1920; Director of the Kala-Azar Commission. [Senior staff: H E Shortt; P J Barraud; Captain A C Craighead, IMS; Mr C S Swaminath, entomologist; and Dr Sribas Das, IMS], 1924; Director of the Central Research Institute, 1925-1932; Knighted, 1931; Professor of Malaria Studies, University of London, in charge of the Experimental Malaria Unit of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 19321938; Cambridge University. Studies of anatomy and biology of mosquitoes. Interupted by Second World War, during which SRC undertook studies of mosquito repellents, from 1938; Anatomical work published - study of Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, 1960.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Sir Rickard Christophers papers comprising correspondence, 1964-1976, photographs and miscellaneous biographical material.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
See Scope and Content.
Conditions governing access:
Open. The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.
Finding aids:
Wellcome Library catalogue online.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
This material was given to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre in April 1994 by Christophers's granddaughter, Mrs E P Parker. Mrs Parker kindly allowed copies to be made of photographs which she retains (see section 10).
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
The papers of P G Shute (WTI/PGS) contain a large amount of correspondence with Sir Rickard Christophers, 1932-1972.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Barbara Ball from the Wellcome Library online catalogue.
Date(s) of descriptions: January 2009