Overview
Clare Aveling Wiggins (5 December 1876 – 7 July 1965) was a British physician, colonial medical administrator, medical missionary, and later in his career, an Anglican priest. Wiggins worked on tropical diseases, including sleeping sickness and leprosy. He served in the Colonial Medical Service (CMS) in Kenya and Uganda from 1901 to 1923, and eventually became the Principal Medical Officer of Uganda. After Wiggins retired, he returned to Uganda as a medical missionary and was the founder of the leprosy treatment facilities, now known as the Kumi Hospital, located in eastern Uganda.
Early life and education
Wiggins was born on 5 December 1876 in Watlington, Oxfordshire, England. He was the son of William Wiggins and the brother of Bernard Henry Wiggins. Wiggins studied at Magdalen College School in Oxford and did his medical training at St Mary's Hospital in London, where he earned his two qualifications as a physician with the Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) and Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (LRCP).
Personal life
Wiggins married Ethel Beatrice Elliott in Nairobi on 9 April 1904. Ethel was born in India and was the daughter of Charles Frederick Elliott, who was the Commissioner of Forests. Ethel and Wiggins had four children.
Career
Wiggins medical career began as an Assistant Medical Officer at the Fulham Infirmary in London and as Casualty Officer at St Mary's Hospital. In 1901, he was appointed Medical Officer to Kenya, where he served in Mombasa, Nairobi, Malindi, Kisumu, and Entebbe. This leprosy colony became the Kumi Hospital that still operates. In 1930, he founded an additional children's leprosy settlement at Kumi. The locations of the settlements were approximately six miles from the Teso District in Eastern Uganda. Wiggins returned to Uganda for general missionary relief work in 1938-1939.
Research and contributions
Wiggins's contributions to building programs and developing treatment facilities for infectious cases and children were instrumental to the leprosy control of the settlements. The strategies Wiggins used to reduce leprosy in the Kumi Hospital were combining medical treatment with agricultural work, village-style segregation, and the supervision of daily life.
Publications
* Wiggins, C.A. "Notes on Sleeping Sickness." The Lancet (1902). * Wiggins, C.A. "Early days in British East Africa and Uganda". Manuscript, Bodleian Library. *Wiggins, C A. “Early days in East Africa and Uganda.” East African medical journal vol. 37 (1960): 699-708 contd. *Wiggins, C A. “Early days in British East Africa and Uganda.” East African medical journal vol. 37 (1960): 780-93. *Wiggins, C A. “Later work in Uganda.” East African medical journal vol. 38 (1961): 383-90.
Later life and honours
After his work in East Africa, Wiggins returned to England, his homeland. In 1943, he was ordained in the Anglican Church in southern England and as a Vicar of Pyrton with Shirburn, Oxfordshire. The University of Oxford awarded Wiggins the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
Death
Wiggins died on 7 July 1965 at Basingstoke Hospital, England.