A brief ceremony marked the formal handover of the archive of LSTM professor R.M. Gordon (1893 – 1961) from his sons Peter and John, earlier this week.
As a sign of gratitude LSTM took on the design, production and private publication of the book ‘The lives of Tim & Joy Gordon, seen through the eyes of a malaria carrying mosquito’, written and compiled by Peter Gordon.
LSTM Professor David Lalloo handed over the first issue of the book to both Peter and John Gordon, expressing thanks for the archive donation and highlighting several key moments of Professor Gordon’s scientific career with LSTM.
Professor Rupert Montgomery ‘Tim’ Gordon, was born in Ireland and graduated as a doctor of medicine from Trinity College, Dublin in 1916. After being enlisted in the British Royal Medical Corps he joined LSTM in 1919 until his formal retirement in 1958.
His research was prolific with 106 scientific papers on multiple tropical medicine topics to his name. He was posted at LSTM’s overseas laboratories in Manaus, Brazil and Freetown, Sierra Leone before returning to Liverpool as Professor of Tropical Diseases.
He met his wife Dr Joy Lowe (1909 – 1999) in 1942. Their engagement party in 1943 took place on the roof of the current Mary Kingsley building (‘the old school’) and they got married in 1944. After the birth of their children Joy Gordon became a resident doctor at the Liverpool Blood Transfusion Service.
They both made multiple overseas trips and one way of staying in touch with family and friends were post cards, drawn by Dr Joy Gordon, which reflected various tropical diseases vectors in various ‘human’ settings.
Professor Gordon was awarded the Chalmers Medal of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine (RSTMH) in 1937, was President of the RSTMH from 1955 to 1958 and received LSTM’s highest awards, the Mary Kingsley Medal, in 1958 for his contributions to Tropical Medicine.