Arthur Colborne Lankester

Arthur Colborne Lankester (1868–1963) worked for the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and took station in Punjab, Peshawar, and Sindh, India before the Indian Parition. He designed and built the Peshawar Mission Hospital. Lankester was a religiously motivated medical missionary who developed more efficient hospital designs that are still in use and also contributed to disease prevention in India. Later he went to work for the government of India as the Tuberculosis Officer as well as the Director of the Medical and Sanitation Department in Hyderabad.

Career Lankester operated within the Amritsar Medical Mission. Originally, this mission launched schools and aimed to evangelize residents in Punjab. However, Lankester transformed it into a medically focused mission in 1898 after the first patient arrived at the mission from 200 miles away and requested treatment.

Lankester aimed to spread the gospel while performing his medical duties, treating conditions such as cataracts and general sickness. The Indian government also tasked him with mitigating tuberculosis. It had two in-patient sections of the building, the second of which was called the "James Serai." It was modeled of the local courtyards called "Serai". There, patients could stay with their family and friends. Lankester brought this idea over from British hospitals and spread it to the South Asian medical system. After other missionary groups saw the success of Lankester's hospital, the Serai System began to spread worldwide.

Lankester worked closely with fellow missionary Henry Martyn Clark. Clark focused primarily on the spread and treatment of malaria. Lankester studied insects and their ability to spread disease along with Clark. This research contributed to the finding that female mosquitos spread malaria through biting.

Publications Tuberculosis in India, Arthur Lankester MD, (317 pgs) Butterworth and Co., Calcutta/Winnepeg/Sydney/London, 1920