GB 0809 Thomson - THOMSON, John Gordon (1878-1937)

1 box

GB 0809 Thomson 1914-1941 Collection (fonds) 1 box Thomson , John Gordon , 1878-1937 , Professor of Protozoology

John Gordon Thomson was born in Linlithgowshire; graduated with an MA from Edinburgh University in 1903, and 5 years later qualified in medicine. After house appointments, he went to Liverpool as research student in tropical medicine in 1910, becoming pathologist to the Royal Southern Hospital and research fellow at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. With a Beir Memorial research fellowship he went to the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1914; went to Egypt with Professor Robert Leiper on the bilharzia mission as Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1915. Later in the war he and his brother, Dr David Thomson, who had both enjoyed the patronage of Ronald Ross when they first went to Liverpool, worked at the War Office malaria research laboratories. After the war he was appointed Chair of Protozoology at the London School where he was a gifted teacher, maintaining a collection of cultures of trypanosomes and other pathological organisms and blood films for teaching purposes.

In 1926 he was exchange lecturer in protozoology at the School of Hygiene, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. In 1936 he gave a series of lectures at Singapore for the League of Nations Special Course on Malaria. He travelled widely in South America and other tropical countries. In 1921-1922 he undertook two expeditions to Rhodesia to study blackwater fever. In 1926 he was in the West Indies, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama.

His publications include a book with Andrew Robertson, Protozoology for Medical Men. His contributions to the knowledge of blackwater fever were regarded as standard, while his methods of enumerating malaria parasites in the blood and cultivating these organisms were of great importance. Thomson died in 1937.

Unknown.

Papers of John Gordon Thomson, 1914-1941, comprise a personal file relating to his appointment, his position and work at the School of Tropical Medicine, and his death (1914-1941) and correspondence with various individuals relating to tropical diseases including blackwater fever (1921-1929).

Arranged into two series: personal file (Thomson/01) and correspondence (Thomson/02).

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.

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.

English

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, London, 1956).

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.

February 2008 Blackwater fever Diseases Higher science education London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Medical education Pathology Thomson , John Gordon , 1878-1937 , Professor of Protozoology Tropical diseases

Unknown.

Papers of John Gordon Thomson, 1914-1941, comprise a personal file relating to his appointment, his position and work at the School of Tropical Medicine, and his death (1914-1941) and correspondence with various individuals relating to tropical diseases including blackwater fever (1921-1929).

Arranged into two series: personal file (Thomson/01) and correspondence (Thomson/02).

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.

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.

• Engels

• Latijn

English

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.

• Engels