Samuel Rickard Christophers, 27 November 1873 - 19 February 1978

Abstract

After a life of great physical and mental activity, Samuel Rickard Christophers died on 19 February 1978, aged 104 years, the greatest age ever reached by a Fellow of the Royal Society. He followed Bacon’s ‘Regimen of Health—to be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and of sleep, and of exercise, is one of the best precepts of long lasting’ [i.e. for prolonging life]. He lived through a century of Science in general and medical science in particular including the immense progress in tropical medicine. In the latter field he was one of the great pioneers to rank equally with his famous peers, Sir Patrick Manson, F.R.S., and Sir Ronald Ross, F.R.S. Christophers was born in Liverpool on 27 November 1873. His father, Samuel Hunt Christophers, was born in Plymouth but the family came from the small village of Maunan in Cornwall and Christophers was vastly proud of the family’s Cornish origin. His mother, Mary Selina Rickard, was born at Redruth, Cornwall, and his parents were married at St Michael’s-in-the-hamlet near Otterspool on the Mersey. His father came to Liverpool and for many years was head of the Statistical Office of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.