Garnham , Professor , Percy Cyril Claude , 1901-1994 , Parasitologist

Garnham , Professor , Percy Cyril Claude , 1901-1994 , Parasitologist

Percy Cyril Claude Garnham was born in London, 15 January 1901; graduated from St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1923; Diploma in Public Health, 1924; moved to Kenya to take up a position with the Colonial Medical Service, 1925. Here he spent a number of years investigating and controlling outbreaks of epidemics such as yellow fever and sleeping sickness. His interests whilst in Kenya ranged from the viral aetiologies of Rift Valley Fever and Nairobi Sheep Disease, studied in cooperation with the service's Veterinary Department, and through bird malaria to monkey and human malaria.

When the Division of Insect Borne Diseases was set up in Nairobi, Garnham became its Malaria Research Officer and then Director. He submitted a thesis on malaria in Kisumu for the degree of MD which he gained in 1928, with the award of Gold Medal from the University of London. In 1947, Garnham returned to London where he became a Reader at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Much of his interest was in malaria parasites, but he also made major contributions on leishmaniasis, piroplasmosis, toxoplasmosis, haemogregarines and many other parasites. In January 1948 Garnham and Professor Henry Shortt discovered the pre-erythroctic stages of true malaria parasites. He was appointed chair of Protozoology in 1952, and became Head of the Department of Parasitology.

Garnham retired as Emeritus of the University of London in 1968 and was invited to be Research Fellow for Imperial College at Silwood Park in Ascot. He collected over 1000 type and voucher specimens of nearly 200 species of malaria parasites from 170 vertebrates or vectors. The collection was catalogued with Dr Tony Duggan and deposited in National History Museum. At the age of 71 Garnham launched an expedition to Borneo to rediscover and redescribe 'P. pitheci,' a malaria parasite of the orang-utan. He came across a new host 'P. silvaticum' in 1972. Between 1926 and 1989 Garnham published solely or jointly more than 400 papers, including 'Malaria Parasites and other Haemosporidia' in 1966. He retired in 1979 and wrote a book on the life of Edgar Allen Poe which was nearing completion on his death on Christmas Day 1994. During his lifetime Garner received Fellowship of the Royal Society, Corresponding Membership of five Foreign Scientific Academies, Honorary Membership of 16 Societies, 14 Medals and Prizes, Doctorates Honories Causa of 2 French Faculties of Medicine, an appointment as Pontifical Academician of the Vatican and the CMG award. Twenty-one taxa parasites and vectors were named after him.

Publications include: Malaria parasites and other haemosporidia (Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, 1966); Progress in parasitology Athlone Press, London, 1971) and Catalogue of the Garnham collection of malaria parasites and other haemosporidia by P C C Garnham and A J Duggan (Cambridge University Press [for] the Wellcome Trust, Cambridge, c1986).