"Report of Special Operational Store - Tyburn"

Excerpted from the Introduction to the Report:

"The out-break of war in the Far East with the movement of large numbers of troops into the battle areas presented the Allied High Command with many problems in the combatting of infectious diseases. In many parts of the Far Eastern war zone scrub typhus was endemic with the result that jungle warfare against the Japanese in Burma and other areas produced a great increase in the incidence of the disease." [p. 1]

"The request from the Army High Command for a sufficient quantity of vaccine to be prepared to carry out extensive trials in troops engaged in combat areas carrying a risk of scrub typhus meant that 1½ million doses of scrub typhus vaccine would be required. The preparation of this quantity of vaccine was outside the resources of the National Institute for Medical Reseach. As the result of inquiries by the Ministry of Supply among the leading pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in Great Britain, the Wellcome Foundation agreed to undertake the production.... It was decided to recruit a team of scientific workers from civilian and service personnel available in the country and to appoint a civilian scientific director responsible to the Wellcome Foundation for the direction of the scheme.

"The project was given the highest operational priority with the secret code name of 'Tyburn'." [pp. 2-3]

The project involved the construction of an extensive animal housing facility in Sussex. The cotton rat, initially transported from America, was used to develop the vaccine.

1945

1 volume Bound typescript (195 pp), with many b/w photographs adhered.

Copyright assigned to the Wellcome Trust