Wednesday 1 June 2011

Collection of the month

This month we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Sir Ronald Ross' knighthood. Ross was awarded the Knight Commandership of the Bath (KCB) in the HRH King George V coronation honours in June 1911 for his services to preventative medicine, most notably for his discovery of the transmission of malaria parasites in man by Anopheles mosquitoes. He was invested on 6 July 1911 at St James's Palace by the King.

News of Ross' award was reported widely in local and national newspapers and medical journals in the United Kingdom, India and Africa. Ross also received over 250 letters and telegrams of congratulations from his family, friends, colleagues and Members of Parliament including the Home Secretary, William Churchill and Prime Minister, Henry Asquith.

The Ross Archive, held here at LSHTM, contains over 300 press cuttings, letters and telegrams sent to Ross on being awarded the KCB and correspondence and ephemera relating to his investiture. For further information please see the archive catalogue at: http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/archives

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