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Wellcome Library

Barrowman, Barclay (1896-1978)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0120 GC/144

Held at: Wellcome Library

Title: Barrowman, Barclay (1896-1978)

Date(s): 1925-1978

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 2 boxes

Name of creator(s): Barrowman | Barclay | 1896-1978 | malariologist

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Barclay Barrowman JP, DTM, FCO, FRSH (1896-1978) was a malariologist. He was born and educated in Glasgow, served during World War One as a medical officer with the Royal Navy in various parts of the world. In 1923 he joined Sir Malcolm Watson in private practice in Klang, the royal capital of Selangor, Federated Malay States, becoming sole principal of the practice in 1928. In 1930 he was appointed Personal Physician to the Sultan of Selangor, and was one of the first two Europeans invested with the Name, Rank and Style of Dato'Semboh di Raja, in 1937. The Sultan's successor appointed him a Justice of the Peace. He served as President of the Malayan Branch of the British Medical Association. He made original and significant advances in the treatment and preventive control of malaria, including running instructional courses under the auspices of the League of Nations. He also made contributions to the improved housing and social welfare of local labour forces on plantations and in the towns and villages of Malaya. During the Second World War, he acted in a civilian capacity for the Australian Military Forces until he accepted an appointment with the Malayan Planning Unit of the War Office in London, and then returned to Malaya with the Military Administration as Advisor in Malariology with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, later Colonel. He remained with the civil administration until the permanent Colonial Services officers returned, while reorganising his medical practice for handover to his partner, retiring with serious ill-health in 1947. After his retirement the communities of Klang petitioned to commemorate his services by naming the new highway to Port Swettenham Barrowman Road. He died on 31 Jan 1978. There is an obituary in the British Medical Journal, 1978, i, p. 514.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Materials relating to Barclay Barrowman's work on malaria control, also more generally on his activities in the Federated Malay States and other parts of South East Asia, 1925-1978.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

1 Malaria Control, 1934-1939; 2 Travels in the Dutch East Indies, 1925; 3 Health of labourers, 1938-1946; 4 Selangor, 1936-1939; 5 Personalia, 1928-1976; 6 Publications by others, 1943-1959.

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.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

An initital accession of material was given to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre by Barrowman's daughter, Mrs Gillian Hearson, via her neighbour Mr Keith Vowles, March 1992; additional material was received in February 2008.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Barbara Ball from the Wellcome Library online catalogue.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: February 2009


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Disease control | Health policy | Health
Malaria | Infectious diseases | Diseases | Pathology

Personal names
Barrowman | Barclay | 1896-1978 | malariologist

Corporate names

Places
Malaysia | South East Asia