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| Liverpool School Of Tropical Medicine Pembroke Place |
During the late 19th century Liverpool became one of the
most important ports in Great Britain. A lack of sanitation and shipping
controls led to regular outbreaks of diseases in the city and often entire
crews of ships would be suffering from unknown infections. Sir Alfred Lewis
Jones, a prominent Liverpool ship owner, together with fellow business men and
health pioneers, founded the Liverpool School of Tropical Diseases (later to be
renamed into Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) in 1898 with an annual
donation of £350 for 3 years. It was not until 1898 that the British Government realized
for the first time that it was sending untrained doctors to work in the
colonies. Doctors who went to tropical colonies had to learn the hard way by
long experience. This reduced their immediate efficiency and generally lowered
the standard of their work. The idea of the Liverpool School apparently began
at the annual dinner of students of the Royal Southern Hospital. Alfred Lewis
Jones, head of the Elder Dempster Shipping Line announced that he had offered
£350 per annum for three years for the promotion of the study of tropical
disease. This 'liberal offer', as it was called at the time, was warmly
accepted by the President of the hospital. In a letter to Jones he suggested
that the Royal Southern Hospital should act as the clinical focus of the
studies in view of its proximity to the docks. He welcomed the collection of
cases in the hospital into one centre rather than "leaving them scattered
about in the general wards as they are at present". The professional
members committee were asked to meet and plan the new school. This they did and
in due course the committee communicated its intention to the Colonial Office.
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| Staff and sudents of the Liverpool School Of Tropical medicine in1912. |
Chamberlain had already established a school in London and
the Colonial Office stipulated that all doctors appointed to the Colonial
Service must attend the school in Albert Dock, London, for at least two months
before acceptance in Colonial Service.
In a letter, the Colonial
Office regretted that no financial aid was possible, but preference would be
given in future to candidates who had attended training programmes in
Liverpool. This letter, however, did acknowledge the creation of a School of
'Tropical Diseases' at University College, Liverpool, which 'was excellently
equipped for teaching of tropical medicine'. Apparently the Liverpool School
was nevertheless still unsuitable for doctors joining the Colonial Service
since the letter continued: 'I propose that Officers already in the Colonial
Service should be allowed to receive their instruction in Liverpool instead of
at the School in London, but newly appointed Officers will always be sent to
the latter School'. Liverpool did not accept this compromise and continued its
pressure for full recognition. At last, on 12 July 1900 the Colonial Office
finally capitulated and the school was placed on the same terms as London with
regard to newly appointed Officers. Similar recognition was given by the
Foreign Office, which was responsible for the Protectorates. Thus, although the
Liverpool School came into active being six months before the school in London, it took another year to persuade the Colonial Office
to recognise it officially.
It was not long before the school began to flourish in
Liverpool helped largely by private donations, one of the schools benefactors
was Mary Kingsly the author of "Travels in West Africa" and a an
expert in African culture. In 1902 a separate department of Tropical Veterinary
medicine was set up by Rubert Boyce and a laboratory installed at Crofton Lodge
in Runcorn to allow for the study of large animals. All of this work was
essential for the Liverpool school to understand tropical diseases and the
school completed 32 expeditions to Africa and Central and South America. When
Alfred Lewis Jones died he left a large bequest to the school he had helped set
up in 1898. As a result of the donations it received the school was able to set
up its own laboratory separate from the university in Pembroke Place. The
laboratory was completed in 1914 but due to the advent of the war occupation
was deferred, however the building continued to be used as a Tropical Diseases
Hospital and offered courses to officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Professor R M Gordon joined the school in 1919 and by 1920 teaching had
resumed.
The school has made many contributions to tropical medicine
especially in identifying the vector for malaria, for which Sir Ronald Ross,
who lectured at the School from 1899 to 1916, won the first British Nobel Prize
in 1902. Today it holds a research portfolio of £192 million including a recent
$50 million pledge by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to combat
diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria, dengue and pneumonia. Since
it opened its first overseas laboratory, in Sierra Leone, in 1921, the School
has expanded its collaborations to more than 60 countries. In 2011 the Diploma
in Tropical Nursing was re-established at the School.
Links
Article by Robert F Edwards
Sources: Liverpool Records Office
B. G Maegraith Institute for the
History of Medicine, London, 1972
