357 Lieutenant Leonard Bousfield
MRCS LRCP (1902) MB BChir (Camb 1903) MD (Camb 1907) DPH (Irel 1912)
27 Feb 1876 [St Leonards-on-Sea Sussex] – 25 Feb 1956 [Shanklin Isle of Wight]
RAMC Aldershot April 1904
Lieutenant Leonard Bousfield was educated at Monkton Combe School where he obtained an exhibition to Pembroke College, Cambridge. After taking the two parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos he began his clinical training at the London Hospital, which he entered with the Price Scholarship. He took the London Conjoint diploma in 1902 and the Cambridge degrees of MB, BChir in the following year, and proceeded to the MD in 1907.
Following qualification, Bousfield held house appointments at the London Hospital and then, in 1904, entered the RAMC, gaining the Herbert Scholarship and Pathology Prize at the entrance examination. He was sent to Malta in 1905 to carry out clinical work for the Malta Fever Commission, and in the following year was seconded for four years to the Egyptian Army. In 1908, he was sent to Khartoum to conduct a special investigation into the prevalence and probable method of transmission of kala-azar. He returned to England in 1910 when he married Miss Jenny M. Emerson, and resumed duty with the RAMC, being promoted major in 1911.
After obtaining the DPH of the Irish Royal Colleges in 1912, Bousfield left the RAMC and was appointed medical officer of health for Khartoum, Khartoum North, and Omdurman, with a seat on the Central Sanitary Board. Four years later he became medical officer of health for Khartoum province, and in 1920 chief sanitary officer of the Sudan Government, a post he held until he retired in 1922. For his services Bousfield received the Order of Mejideah (Fourth Class) from the Sultan of Turkey and the Order of the Nile (Third Class) from the King of Egypt.
After his retirement to Shanklin he took an active part in local affairs, being chairman of the War Savings Committee and of the tennis club. Dr Bousfield died at his home at Shanklin Isle of Wight on 25 February 1956, two days before his 80th birthday.1
Service Record
30 Jan 1904 Lieutenant RAMC (On probation). Confirmed in rank 15 July 1904.
The Army Medical Department became an attractive alternative to those who lacked the financial resources or family connections to establish themselves in civilian medical practice. Bousfield, in his Sudan Doctor published in 1954, wrote that his decision to join the army medical service in 1904 was dictated by the fact that I was not able to lay my hands on sufficient capital to start in the kind of practice I would have fancied in civilian life and I felt too that it would be useful to have the opportunity of seeing something of the world at the public expense.
2
27 Sep 1905 Arrived from England, to carry out clinical work for the Malta Fever Commission.
23 Apr 1906 Left on SS City of Athens with 1st/Lancashire Fusiliers, who were suddenly ordered for Egypt.
30 Apr 1906 – 1910 Seconded for service with the Egyptian Army for four years.
Served in the Sudan, Kordofan, Sennar and Kassola Districts.
30 July 1907 Promoted Captain RAMC.
1908 Sent to Khartoum to conduct a special investigation into the prevalence and probable method of transmission of Kala-Azar.
28 June 1910 Awarded The Order of the Nile 3rd Class, and The Imperial Ottoman Order of the Medjidieh 4th Class.
29 Aug 1910 Restored to Establishment.
1911 Promoted Major.
1912 Specialist in Bacteriology.
6 Nov 1912 Retired from the RAMC with a gratuity. Took up an appointment as Medical Officer of Health for Khartoum and Omdurman. Carried out anti-malarial work under Sir Andrew Balfour, Director of the Henry Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories in Khartoum.
1920–1922 Chief Sanitary Officer, Government of Sudan.
27 Feb 1931 Ceased to belong to Regular Army Reserve of Officers.
Bibliography
- Entry No: 357. Drew R. 1968. Commissioned Offices in the Medical Services of the British Army 1690–1960. Vol. II. Roll of Officers in the Royal Army Medical Corps 1898–1960, London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library.
- RAMC/PE/3/27/Drew. Manuscript for Drew's Roll.
- Succession Books Vol XXII, Returns of statement of service of RAMC Officers.
- AMS Magazine, 8; 3:78 dated July 1956.
- Crichton-Harris A., Poison in small Measure: Dr Christopherson and the cure for Bilharzia.
- Bousfield L., (1954) Sudan Doctor.
- 1Obituary. Brit Med J (1956), 1; 577 (Published 10 March 1956).
- 2Lankford Nelson D., (1980) The Victorian medical profession and military practice: army doctors and national origins. Bulletin of the History of Medicine Vol 54; 511&8211;528.