James Churchill Omosanya Vaughan Jr., M.D. (30 May 1893 – 1937) was a Nigerian doctor and a prominent political activist.

Birth and education

Vaughan was born in Lagos on 30 May 1893, the son of James Wilson Vaughan, who descended from the 19th century American artisan Scipio Vaughan and through whom he also had Catawba ancestry. His father was a prosperous Lagos

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba consti ...

merchant. He was among the first set of scholars at King's College, Lagos when it was founded in 1909. Vaughan and Isaac Ladipo Oluwole were the two first Nigerian students at the University of Glasgow, studying medicine there from 1913 to 1918, when they graduated with medical degrees. The two students were subject to racial prejudice. In the program for the final dinner in 1918, Vaughan was given an epithet after Robert Burns's "The Twa Dogs", likening him to a foreign born dog, "whalpit some place far abroad".

Career

Returning to Nigeria in the early 1920s, Vaughan set up a private clinic. He also provided free medical services for the destitute. Vaughan attempted with little success to collate the works of the pioneering Nigerian doctor

Oguntola Sapara Chief Oguntola Odunbaku Sapara M.D. (9 June 1861 – June 1935) was a Yoruba doctor, originally from Sierra Leone, who spent most of his career and life in Nigeria. He was best known for his campaign against smallpox. Early life and education ...

, who had taken a special interest in traditional herbal medicines, but had left only fragmentary records of his researches. Vaughan became an outspoken critic of the British Colonial Administration, and in 1934 was one of the founders of the Lagos Youth Movement along with other leading activists including Dr

Kofo Abayomi Oloye Sir Kofoworola Adekunle "Kofo" Abayomi (10 July 1896 – 1 January 1979) was a Nigerian ophthalmologist and politician. He was one of the founders of the nationalist Nigerian Youth Movement in 1934 and went on to have a distinguished public ...

, Hezekiah Oladipo Davies, Ernest Sissei Ikoli, and

Samuel Akinsanya Samuel Akisanya, (1 August 1898 – January 1985) was a Nigerian trade unionist and nationalist based in Lagos, Nigeria during the colonial era, one of the founders of the Nigerian Youth Movement. He was also the Oba of Isara, an office whic ...

. Vaughan was the first president of the movement. The Lagos Youth Movement originally had improvement of higher education as its goal, but within four years had become the most influential nationalist organization in the country. It was renamed the Nigerian Youth Movement in 1936 to emphasize its pan-Nigerian objectives. One of the early issues was the curriculum of medical teaching at the Yaba Higher College.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan James Churchill Nigerian activists 1893 births 1937 deaths King's College, Lagos alumni Physicians from Lagos 19th-century Nigerian people 20th-century Nigerian medical doctors People from colonial Nigeria Yoruba physicians Yoruba activists History of Lagos James Churchill Nigerian people of Cherokee descent Nigerian nationalists Yoruba politicians 20th-century Nigerian politicians Alumni of the University of Glasgow Medical School Nigerian humanitarians