Why Liverpool?

Liverpool’s wealth and prominence was born out of its connections to the transatlantic slave economy. The city’s dominance of trade in Africa and the Americas during the 18th and 19th centuries saw the town transform from “a struggling port to become one of the richest and most prosperous trading centres in the world.” Once the East India Company lost its monopoly of trade between India (1813) and China (1833), Liverpool’s merchants quickly took up the opportunity to establish trade links with those regions. Trade with the colonies produced a wealthy, entrepreneurial class dominated by white European men and led to the city having strong connections to colonies in what was then defined as ‘tropical’ regions.  Leading to Liverpool becoming the gateway to the British Empire. 

Who was Sir Alfred Lewis Jones?

Sir Alfred Lewis Jones was an influential shipping magnate who owned the Elder Dempster Shipping Line. He had made significant profits from various European countries’ colonial exploitations, mainly in Africa. The Congo Free State (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) was one such country, ruled and cruelly exploited at the time by the brutal King Leopold II of Belgium whose regime was responsible for the death of millions of Congolese people. Lewis Jones’ shipping company played a significant part in that exploitation, shipping goods such as rubber and ivory between Congo and Belgium, increasing his considerable wealth in the process.  

LSTM’s first prospectus

Published in 1899, made clear the school’s links with both local and international commerce and Britain’s colonies:

‘Owing to the short time period required for the passage between Liverpool and the tropical parts of Africa, to the interest taken by the great ship owners in the school, and to the large importation of cattle from America, a constant supply of examples of parasitic diseases of the higher animals can easily be obtained with a view to students being able at all times to examine the living organisms. The importance of this is very great… For the same reasons, communications with tropical colonies and scientific expeditions to Africa and elsewhere are easy to organise.’

In its first decades, LSTM relied on the facilities of University College, now known as the University of Liverpool. This lasted until 1915 when its own purpose-built facility opened at Pembroke Place. However, World War I delayed full occupation until 1920 as the building was initially used as a military hospital. 

LSTM goes international

LSTM's first laboratory outside the UK was established in 1905 in Manaus, Brazil, replacing a succession of expensive research expeditions. Later, in 1921, Sir Alfred Lewis Jones' legacy funded the development (but not the running) of a research laboratory in Freetown, Sierra Leone, part of the British Empire at that time. Before its closure in 1941, the laboratory made some important discoveries, including demonstrating that a species of black fly was responsible for the transmission of filarial worms, which cause river blindness, in humans.

Working in partnership

Our first female lecturer, Alwen Evans described herself and her colleagues as the specialists but LSTM’s partners across the world as the experts. That’s just one of the reasons why LSTM works closely with partners in-country and aims that all partnerships are equitable. Probably our most successful partnership is Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust (MLW) which aims to conduct high-quality research to improve health in Malawi and to train the country’s next generation of researchers. MLW recently turned 25.

In the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) LSTM was ranked second in the UK for the impact of our research and in 2022 we were designated as one of 21 world-leading specialist providers by the Office for Students. In 2023 we also received the UK’s highest national honour for higher education, the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, for our life saving Tsetse-control programme, Tiny targets.