Woodruff, Professor Alan Waller (1916-1992)

The following is an interim description which may change when detailed cataloguing takes place in future:

Papers 1951-1980, including re East and West African Councils for Medical Research, MRC boards re tropical medicine, WHO, toxoplasmosis; enquiries to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases; lectures; drafts; reviews; correspondence; conferences

1951-1980

Uncatalogued: 98 boxes, 3 oversize items

Acc 556 was transferred to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre for storage in 1981, as described above, and its status changed to gift in 1995, at the time when Acc 578 was given to the CMAC by Woodruff's widow. A further few boxes were received from Woodruff's daughter-in-law in 1997, Acc 719.

Alan Waller Woodruff, physician, specialist in tropical diseases, born Sunderland 27 June 1916, House Physician and House Surgeon Royal Victoria Infirmary Newcastle upon Tyne 1939-40, MO and Medical Specialist RAFVR 1940-46, Medical Registrar Royal Victoria Infirmary Newcastle upon Tyne 1946-48, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Tropical Medicine London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 1948-52, First Assistant Hospital for Tropical Diseases University College Hospital London 1948- 52, Physician 1952-81, Wellcome Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 1952-81, President Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 1973-75, Medical Society of London 1975-76, CMG 1978, Professor of Medicine University of Juba 1981-92, OBE 1989, married 1946 Helen Arnold (two sons, one daughter), died Khartoum 12 October 1992.

Obituary can be found here

This collection is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Requests to view uncatalogued material are considered on a case by case basis. Please contact collections@wellcomecollection.org for more details.

Acc 556 box-listed. Acc 719 box-listed (comprises mainly case notes, 1940s).

Professor Woodruff asked the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre to store his records in 1981 when he went to work in the Sudan, with a view to eventually writing a history of tropical medicine. Acc 556 was collected as filing cabinets from Woodruff's office in Hospital for Tropical Diseases, 1981, and stored in the Wellcome Institute Store at Enfield. It remained there until the store's closure in 1995. It was then returned to the Wellcome Institute in Euston Road, where initial weeding of duplicates, ephemera and published materials was carried out and the collection rehoused in transfer boxes.