ALCOCK, Alfred William (1859-1933)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0809 Alcock
Held at	: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/archives/ ›
Full title	: ALCOCK, Alfred William (1859-1933)
Date(s)	: 1906-1920s
Level of description	: collection
Extent	: 1 file and 1 envelope
Name of creator(s)	: Alcock | Alfred William | 1858-1933 | zoologist
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Alfred William Alcock was born in Bombay on June 23 1859, the son of Captain John Alcock. Alcock's school years at Westminster were cut short by his father's financial difficulties, he was sent to India at the age of 17, to relatives in the coffee trade. For five years he tried out a number of jobs including schooolmastering; during this time he became interested in science, helped by Michael Foster's physiology textbook. In 1881 a brother-in-law, an officer in the Indian Civil Service, offered to help him to a medical education, which he completed at Aberdeen in three and a half years graduating MB, CM in 1885. Adding a course in tropical medicine at Netley to his qualifications, Alcock then spent another 20 years in India, in the Indian Marine Survey, as Surgeon-Naturalist, with the Indian Museum in Calcutta, and keeping in touch with medicine at the Medical College Hospital.

On his return to London, Patrick Manson recruited him, in 1906, to head a new medical entomology department, to join Leiper's helminthology and Wenyon's protozoology at the School of Tropical Medicine at the Albert Dock. He was the author of the first comprehensive textbook of Entomology for Medical Officers in 1911; in 1921 he became the first Professor of Medical Zoology in the University of London. His influence on the development of the London School was much greater than that of a mere teacher of medical entomology. He became an active architect; he embellished the school museum; he collected and arranged a large collection of insects of medical importance. He was largely concerned with the foundation of the Tropical Diseases Library based to a great extent on the books which Manson had collected. He was a frequent contributor to the short-lived Journal of the London School of Tropical Medicine which flourished for a time under his guidance but which was discontinued in 1913. Alcock died in 1933.

Publications include Report on the natural history results of the Pamir boundary commission (Calcutta, 1898) and Entomology for medical officers (London, 1911).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Alfred Wiliam Alcock, 1906-1920s, comprise autobiographical notes on his life and correspondence on the status of zoology in India and the unsatisfactory condition of the Indian Museum, Calcutta.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Arranged in original order.

Conditions governing access:

This collection is open for consultation. Please contact the Archivist to arrange an appointment. All researchers must complete and sign a user registration form which signifies their agreement to abide by the archive rules. All researchers are required to provide proof of identity bearing your signature (for example, a passport or debit card) when registering. Please see website for further information at www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/archives.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Archivist.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

LSHTM library stamp dated 2 March 1948.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Natural History Museum holds papers and drawings (Reference: DF252).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Victoria Killick, LSHTM Archivist and edited by Samantha Velumyl, AIM25 cataloguer. Sources: Prevention and Cure The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, A 20th Century Quest for Global Public Health Lise Wilkinson and Anne Hardy (Kegan Paul Limited, 2001) and History of the School of Tropical Medicine in London (1899-1949) by Sir Philip Manson-Bahr,(H K Lewis & Co Ltd, 1956, London).

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 2008