The British Medical Research Council has supported research in The Gambia since 1949. For research into infectious diseases in the tropics their laboratories are regarded as one of the leading centres in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to research, the laboratories operate health services: in 2004 their clinic accepted 60,000 inpatients and 30,000 outpatients. The patients suffer from malaria, anaemia, malnutrition, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases and other illnesses. The Gambia is a long, narrow country divided by the broad river Gambia. The main laboratories were nine miles from the city of Bathurst, and the field station at Keneba was seventy miles further upstream. Travel by bush road between the two establishments was difficult, but the journey was easily accomplished by river. The present photograph shows the sixty-foot long diesel motor cruiser "Lady Dale" which the Wellcome Trust presented to the laboratories in 1957. Lady Dale was the name of the wife of the then chairman of the Wellcome Trust, Sir Henry Dale FRS OM. The boat was built in England with a grant of £26,000 from the Wellcome Trust