History Timeline | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Go to the homepage

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

From the 1890s up to the present day, charting the major developments and events in the School's history.

Hover on the arrows below to move through the timeline.
Click to jump to the next decade.
1890

Seamen's Hospital Society branch hospital opens at the Royal Albert Dock, London

1890

The Seamen's Hospital Society and London School of Tropical Medicine building, c.1899. Photo from LSHTM Archives.

The Seamen’s Hospital Society was founded in 1821 for the purpose of establishing, by public voluntary subscriptions, a floating hospital, for the assistance and relief of sick and helpless seamen’. Patients were treated on ships moored on the Thames, including HMS Dreadnought which had fought in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The patients were moved to dry land in 1870, to part of the Greenwich hospital and in 1890 the Society opened a branch hospital at the Royal Albert Dock.
1892

Sir Patrick Manson appointed as a physician at the Seamen's Hospital Society Branch Hospital

1892

Manson (1844-1922) was a physician who had worked in the Far East from the 1860s to the 1880s where he experienced frustration at his lack of knowledge of tropical diseases. He returned to London in 1889 and went back into practice as his retirement fortune was decimated by a sharp fall in the value of the Chinese dollar. He began work at the hospital in 1892 and his work with seamen suffering from tropical diseases helped to develop his argument that training in this area was required.

Sir Patrick Manson in his study, 1908. Photo from LSHTM Archives.
1897

Sir Ronald Ross discovers the transmission of malaria by mosquitoes

1897

Ross (1857-1932) was working as a doctor in the Indian Medical Service when he discovered that the Anopheles mosquito transmitted malaria on 20th August 1897. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902 and knighted in 1911. He continued to work on the prevention and eradication of malaria for the rest of his career. The School’s archives holds a collection of over 20,000 items relating to Ross’ life and work, click here for more information.

Ronald Ross, 1898. Photo from LSHTM Archives.
1897

Sir Patrick Manson appointed as medical advisor to the Colonial Office by Joseph Chamberlain

1897

As Colonial Secretary, Chamberlain (1836-1914) was aware that the poor health of the native workers and the officials sent to serve in the Colonies was a threat to Britain’s growing empire. Mortality rates among officials in some parts of the world, particularly the Gold Coast of West Africa, were so high that salaries were sometimes 100% higher than those of colleagues elsewhere. Chamberlain was ready to accept lobbying for education and research to combat tropical diseases when Manson became the Medical Advisor to the Colonial Office in 1897.

Joseph Chamberlain. Photo from LSHTM Archives.
1899

Opening of the London School of Tropical Medicine at the Royal Albert Dock in the East End of London

1899

The London School of Tropical Medicine, Royal Albert Dock, 1899. Photo from LSHTM Archives.

The School opened its doors to 11 students on 2nd October 1899 as part of the Seamen’s Hospital Society’s Branch Hospital at the Albert Dock. The object of the School was not only to acquaint the students with tropical diseases and teach them how to treat them but also to train them to investigate, observe, record and study the diseases.