Delépine family papers

This section contains papers relating to Delépine's personal and family life. It includes both original archival documents, biographical notes and reproductions. The bulk of the papers relate to Auguste Sheridan Delépine and his immediate family, his parents, wife and children. Of particular relevance to those interested in Delépine himself are his naturalisation papers and his will. However, there are also a number of other original documents, including birth and marriage certificates, passports, and family photographs. There is also material relating to Sheridan's father, Alphonse Antoine Delépine, including his original school reports, copies papers relating to his property in France, and a typescript volumes about his travels in California during the Gold Rush.

Auguste Sheridan Delépine, known as Sheridan, was born at Perroy in Switzerland and was educated in Paris and the University of Lausanne. He later studied at Geneva and Edinburgh and graduated with a medical degree from the latter institution in 1882. He then worked with Professor Hamilton in the laboratory for pathological research at Edinburgh until 1884 when he moved to St George's Hospital in London as a demonstrator in pathology and pathologist. Delépine was the key figure in the study of bacteriology and public health in Manchester, and was the first full time professor of pathology at Owens College, later Manchester University from 1891 to 1921. Delépine was very active as professor, developing a course for undergraduates in bacteriology and setting up the bacteriological laboratories in the Owens College Medical School, which later became the Public Health Laboratory, of which he was director. Delépine committed himself completely to the PHL, investing his mental, physical and financial resources into this project that came to embody his work and ideals.

Auguste Sheridan Delépine was the son of Alphonse Antoine Delépine, [1824]-1886. Antoine was born in Paris and travelled to California in the 1840s, at the time of the Gold Rush, when he was apparently captured by Indians. He was a physician by profession and a student of law, but followed neither of these professions. He returned to France, where Sheridan was born and died in Versailles in 1886. Sheridan's mother was Jeanne Louise Henriette Mennet. In 1884 Sheridan married Florence Rose, from an English piano manufacturing family, and had a son, Helenus Delépine, and a daughter, Elise Helene Delépine. Auguste Sheridan Delépine was naturalised as a British citizen in 1893.

This subfonds has been organized into the following two series:

• SPH/2/1 Original documents
• SPH/2/2 Reproductions