Papers of Desmond William G. Faris

Papers relating to Changi and Sime Road internment camps, Malaya, [1942-1945], including personal papers, statistics, plans, and material on various diseases, medical facilities, sanitation, etc.; , [1946-1956].

Desmond William George Faris (1901-c1967), colonial medical officer, was Clinical Assistant to Outpatients at the London Hospital from 1924, before taking a post as a Medical Officer in Malaya, 1926. By 1935 he was Acting Senior Health Officer in Penang and moved to a similar position in Singapore in 1937, where he was engaged in anti-malarial work. When Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942 he became Chief Medical and Health Officer for the civilian internment camps, shortly afterwards taking specific responsibility for Public Health. Some time after the end of the Second World War he became Director of Medical Services for the Malayan Union and by 1956 he was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Malaya.

Bodleian reader's ticket required.

Collection level description created by Paul Davidson, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

Listed as no. 680 in Manuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford, Accessions 1978-1994 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996). A handlist is also available in the library reading room.

No reproduction or publication of personal papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.

File of medical papers, 1931-1946, including Selangor Coast district annual report, 1931, accrued while Health Officer; reports on the working of the Government Health Department, Singapore, 1941-1945; reports on the hospital and nutrition at civilian internment camp, [1942-1945] (ref. MSS. Ind. Ocn. s. 135).