Rickard Christophers

Rickard Christophers
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Born	Samuel Richard Christophers (1873-11-27)27 November 1873
Died
Notable awards	Manson Medal (1944) Buchanan Medal (1952) Fellow of the Royal Society

Brevet Colonel Sir (Samuel) Richard Christophers CIE, OBE, FRS (27 November 1873 – 19 February 1978) was a British protozoologist and medical entomologist specialising in mosquitoes.

Education

Christophers was born and raised in Liverpool, the son of Samuel Hunt and Kate Christophers and educated at the Liverpool Institute and University of Liverpool, graduating MB in 1896.

Career

In 1897, he took part in an Amazonian expedition and in 1898 went to Italy as part of the Malaria Commission, followed by a trip to Africa to study malaria. In 1901, the Malaria Commission moved to India.

On his return to England in 1902, he became a Lieutenant in the Indian Medical Service, moving back to India in 1904. In 1910 he was appointed the first Director of the Central Malaria Bureau, coordinating anti-malarial training and research throughout India. He spent World War I on anti-malaria duties in Iraq and in 1919 returned again to India as Director of the Central Research Institute at Kasauli in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Christophers was also an honorary physician to King George V from 1927 to 1930. He was awarded CIE in 1915, OBE in 1918 and knighted in 1931. He retired from the Indian Medical Service 27 November 1930 a Brevet Colonel. In 1944 Christophers was awarded the Manson Medal by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene for his significant contribution to the fields of tropical medicine and hygiene.

He died at Broadstone in Dorset. He had married Elise Emma Sherman in 1902. They had several children.

Awards

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1926. He was the sixteenth president of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from 1939 to 1943.

An expert on tropical medicines, Christophers studied many diseases, particularly malaria. His work on the research of this disease won him the Royal Society's 1952 Buchanan Medal for "outstanding research" on the Anopheles mosquito that transmitted malaria. In his career he also contributed to the taxonomy of other parasites.

Works

• A summary of the recent observations upon the Anopheles of the Middle East. Indian Journal of Medical Research 7, pp. 710–716 (1920).
• With Shortt, H.E.: Malaria in Mesopotamia. Indian Journal of Medical Research 8, pp. 508–529 (1921).
• The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Diptera Volume IV (1933).