Papers of Major HS Leeson

Material, including scientific notes, tables, graphs, drawings, maps, photographs, correspondence and reports, relating to expeditions to East Africa (1935-1936) and Southern Rhodesia (1926-1928 and 1933-1935) to investigate malaria; report by Leeson on mosquito specimens collected by Captain Ward from the Island of Socotra, Yemen and a malaria survey in Arabia.

Born in Liverpool, Leeson joined Professor Robert Newstead in the Entomological Department of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 1909. In 1915, he joined the RAMC and worked with Newstead, Major EE Austen and Mr R Jackson on houseflies in France. Returning from the war he passed his sanitation examinations and became an Associate of the Royal Sanitary Institute. In 1925 he began his association with the London School of Tropical Medicine, being chosen as collector-demonstrator to Colonel A Alcock in the Entomological Department. From 1926 to 1928 he spent three years in Southern Rhodesia on an Anopheles survey - a work which was published as Memoir No.4 of the Research Series of the School. From 1933 to 1936 he returned to Southern Rhodesia on a study of Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funestus. In 1936 he went on an expedition to East Africa, including Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika to study Anopheles funestus. In 1938 he was in Greece and Albania with a Rockefeller Grant.

During the second world war he played an important part in malaria prevention in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Cyprus by carrying out anopheline surveys as the entomologist of No.2 Malaria Field Laboratory of which Professor G Macdonald was for some time commanding officer. From 1943 to 1945 he was in charge of the malaria wing of the Middle East School of Hygiene. When the war ended he returned to the School to work as lecturer in the Department of Entomology and a Recognised Teacher of the University of London.

He became a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society in 1930 and of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1943.

Leeson wrote many scientific papers, his major works include No.4 of the School's Memoir series on anopheline mosquitoes of Southern Rhodesia and No.7 on anopheles in the Near East. He also assisted Professor Buxton in his work on tsetse flies, No.10 of the Memoir series.

Arranged into 6 series

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

Compiled by Victoria Killick, LSHTM Archivist. Sources: History of the School of Tropical Medicine in London (1899-1949) by Sir Philip Manson-Bahr, 1956, H K Lewis&Co Ltd, London and Report on the work of the School for the year 1957-1958.

A detailed computer catalogue is available for use in the Archives and the on-line archive catalogue will be available at www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/archives from 2005

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